Comparison of the impact of financial scandals: USA vs Europe

Abstract

In the current century, financial scandals have hit the market place throughout the world. The European and US Continent were especially touched by these various crises. The companies Enron and Parmalat, are often compared, because of their corporate governance issues, have decreased the confidence of investors before seeing the arrival of the so called “hero” of Wall Street namely Bernard Madoff. However, the story was pretty similar with Madoff, the collapse of the “fund” and the appearance of new studies to understand the phenomena. The European and US legislation system are different by their mechanism, but not only because the EU is not yet a unique market. There is an overall intention of having legislator to go to a single one like the American model, but how long does it takes to react to an event seen from another continent and for a scandal on their own field. It is true that a lot of work has been developed to speak and analyse about financial scandals, but the “wait-and-see attitude” leaves action far behind. In addition, the reality of the always changing financial world could always bring new elements into play.