指鹿为马的行为：相比得不偿失的削减费用，更恶劣的是把会计准则当儿戏，因为后者更难察觉。想想安然（Enron）设立的特殊目的实体（SPE）吧。尽管安然只持有这些实体3%的股份，却靠着它们完成了利润注水。

    违法乱纪的行为：形形色色的不法行为都可以显著地推高利润。南方保健公司（HealthSouth）就曾经造假，欺骗性地调高了预计能从客户处获得的收入数额，结果导致5位首席财务官锒铛入狱。而费用资本化则可以使成本神奇消失，世界通信公司（WorldCom）正是将这种做法发挥到了极致。

    企业管理者们采取这些行动，目的都是为了达到无法通过正常途径来实现的利润预期。要减少这些行为，公司方面至少可以拒绝给出一厢情愿的预期，但对于大多数公司来说，要公开调低预期实在是太痛苦了。因此，这样的超额预期仍将继续存在，而管理者们仍将继续为此使劲浑身解数。但最糟的是，很多投资者也相信这些预期——即使这些预期显然不靠谱。眼下就是这种情况。

    Misleading: Worse than misguided slashing, because it's harder to detect, is playing the accounting rules like a fiddle. Think of Enron's special purpose entities, which enabled it to increase profits through outfits in which it owned only a 3% stake.

    Illegal: Various federal crimes can boost earnings impressively. HealthSouth (HLS) fraudulently adjusted its estimates of how much it would collect from customers; five CFOs went to prison. Capitalizing expenses makes costs magically disappear; that's what WorldCom did in a bigger way than any company before or since.

    All those moves were committed by managers trying to meet profit expectations that couldn't be reached responsibly. Companies can at least reduce the temptation by refusing to make forecasts of their own, but for most the prospect of publicly dialing down expectations is just too painful. So the expectations live on, and managers keep trying to meet them. Most harmfully, many investors believe them -- even when, as now, they're clearly in fantasyland.