That books get cooked is not a revelation. That the practice is so systemic that even the world's most self-assured investors are rattled, though, is reason to sit up. And think.

You've read the news by now. Many of America's Wall Street-dazzling numbers are turning out to be phony. Xerox, it seems, boosted its topline by documenting a few billion dollars of revenue that still hadn't come through. WorldCom sneaked a few billion in regular expenses to the investment account, hoping to depreciate it down the years and buoy its bottomline in the meantime. Dozens of other firms are under investigation, and the shockers aren't likely to stop. The common element, unsurprisingly, is the audit firm Andersen-the guys who let Enron's finance studs strike off-balance-sheet deals with shady firms that turned out to be their very own.

Sounds familiar? It sure does. After all, 'corporate transparency' has always been a nerd issue in India, not to be taken seriously by the serious. Fake projects, fund siphoning, asset stripping, figure jugglery, stock rigging, SBU-to-SBU sales booking, you name it-Indians have been master chefs at serving book broth. To some old-school industrialists, that's the very idea of conglomerates, with all their cross-holdings-the byzantinisation of accounts beyond all scope of scrutiny. Nor does it help that India's Socialist-era policies gave such practices some sort of victimhood justification. It's how business gets on around here, accountants would wink... any hassles?

Plenty. For one, it's a global world now, and it's bad for everybody that 'investor confidence' suddenly sounds like an oxymoron. Not since 1494, when a Venetian monk called Luca Paciolo invented 'double-entry book-keeping' (for figure corroboration, ironically), have so many people wondered if accountancy is some form of witchcraft, cauldrons, bubbles et al.

The implications are scary. What's at stake is not billions in conjured, mis-reported or siphoned money, but the underlying integrity of the entire system by which capital is allocated in the market economy. Remember 'limited liability'? The principle that allows joint-stock corporations to deploy public funds towards making money for shareholders by taking risks that fully-liable individuals cannot? Well, people are wondering if it has ended up as 'unlimited licence'.

Most certainly not, say system upholders, who have responded to the crisis with reflex cries for tighter regulation and Pavlovian proposals to plug the 'gaps in the GAAP', as it were. Other suggestions: rotate auditors, institute systems for 'public accountability', and give corporate boards a spine.

In times of crisis, it's natural to duck the big issues. Yet, it's no use pretending that perfunctory debate will do. To start with, take the vexed distinction between expenses and investments. Is there a good reason that advertising, for example, is classified as an 'expense' rather than an 'investment'? And what about brands as assets? The rules here are still in flux. And so should they be, no matter how disconcerting the debate gets.

Enron, WorldCom, and Xerox were also brands, were they not? And a brand is a symbol of trust, vested with the logic of fame being its own regulator. A famous brand or individual will be good-because there's much more to lose by being bad. This echoes the old hypothesis that the intelligent man is honest not for fear of punishment upon dishonesty, but because he sees integrity as an inalienable asset that can be leveraged over a lifetime.

So, what went wrong? Has integrity's market value crashed? Does the 'image' of success give better returns? Is this becoming the sole focus of corporate devotion? Is the priesthood of auditors in on this? Are lid-blowers at peril (a la 'The Insider')? And, finally, to whom (or what) do executives owe their allegiance?

Whoever, whatever, business dealings must square with the Truth, at some point. The sooner the better. And it won't happen on its own. Don't be surprised if investors start demanding cent per cent transparency, with all accounts put on the internet for real-time validation and dissection. Furthermore, expect an all-round questioning of first principles-the nerve for which is what makes America the success it is anyway.