Sheesh, for a company with a name that sounds like one of Superman's easygoing uncles from back on Krypton, Enron sure has managed to get a lot of people spooked. We haven't really discussed the whole sordid affair here before, because fortunately it never had much direct bearing on our own isolated little realm of drama. Suddenly, though, that's all changing; now there's a widespread concern that other corporate bean-counters may not be properly counting them beans. Why, just today, faithful viewer Eric Broadhurst notified us that the accounting practices of nVIDIA, Apple's current graphics chip manufacturer of choice, are under investigation by the SEC. Enronitis: it's an epidemic, and so far there's no greaseless topical cream to treat it.

The reason this is such a bummer-- aside from all those people who lost their life savings, of course-- is that the ensuing justified paranoia has led to one spectacularly uninteresting press release from Apple itself. We knew we were in for some Z's when we saw the title-- "Apple Adopts New Auditors Policy"-- but we forged bravely ahead anyway. It seems that in light of the current widespread concern about numerical funniness making its way into the company books, Apple has seen fit to "make it crystal clear to [its] shareholders" that no such shenanigans are happening in Cupertino. To that end, to help ensure that Apple doesn't go down in a stupendous Enronesque blaze of corruption, the company now "bans its auditors from performing non-financial consulting, such as information technology consulting and internal audit services."

Now, don't get us wrong-- we applaud what Apple's trying to do, here. Heck, as investors ourselves, we here at the AtAT compound are grateful for Apple's attempt to make us feel as comfortable as possible about the company's financial practices. However, we would like to make one teensy little request: in the future, if such dry subject matter absolutely needs to go into a press release, we'd really appreciate it if Apple could mix in a little extra drama, just to keep us awake as we slog through the dull stuff. You know, something along the lines of "Apple Adopts New Auditors Policy While Steve Jobs Juggles Two Butcher Knives and a Chainsaw." Just a suggestion.