DUE TO AN UNFORTUNATE CLERICAL ERROR...

...we overstated profits by 76 billion dollars.

$76 billion is a large number. The magnitude of the earnings mis-statement was roughly equal to the market value of a large multinational corporation (UPS has a market cap of $76 billion, Time-Warner about the same).

Mistakes were made, nothing to see here, move along...

$76 BILLION!?!?! AYFKM!?!

Here's one more interesting number. According to the company, its 2002 net income was -$9.2 bn on revenues of 32.2 bn, implying a net margin of -29%. This is like summiting Everest. It is an achievement that should be engraved on a monument somewhere. According to my database, the average S&P company had a net margin of around 11% last year. The highest net margin recorded by an S&P non-financial company last year was 39%, by Linear Technology. So WorldCom was 40% worse than average, and 78% short of great.

[We should also not understate the personal acheivement involved - I could fuck up everything every hour every day for the rest of my life and still not lose $76 billion. If all my paintings were worth 10 Million each, and I left 7000 of them in the dumpster by accident on the way to Sotheby's, and if I had some paint left, I'd still be ahead by $6 bn. It's arguably true that Bill Gates couldn't lose this kind of money if he tried. And it's Martha Stewart in the pokey.

I should also note that it's of the same order of magnitude of 'misunderestimation' that the Medicare Drug Company (sic) Benefit Plan - and note the Administration's way of handling the truth. PWP]