Amazon.com description: Product Description: Enron, WorldCom, Global Crossing - the mere mention of these companies brings forth images of scandal, fraud, and large-scale corruption. But do these dark stars of media stories represent a few "bad apples" or does their misconduct provide evidence of a regulatory black hole in the so-called New Economy?In "Pump and Dump", Robert H. Tillman and Michael L. Indergaard argue that these scandals are symptoms of a corporate governance problem that began in the 1990s as New Economy pundits claimed that advances in technology and forms of business organization were changing the rules. A decade later, it looked more like a case of no rules as endless revelations of fraud in the wake of corporate bankruptcies left ordinary investors bewildered and employees out of work with little or nothing.At a time when there is growing debate about proposals to privatize programs like Social Security and to promote an "ownership society," this book offers a path-breaking analysis of America's most urgent economic problem: a system that relies on self-regulation and the rancid politics that continue to support the short-term interests of financial elites over the long-term interests of most Americans.