Last year, our venerable supreme court ruled that liability for most securities laws violations does not extend to the bankers, lawyers and accountants that enable balance sheet voodoo and other illegal, fraudulent manipulations of our capital markets. 

Today, Senators Specter (PA) and Kaufman (DE--Biden's replacement) introduced a bill to undo the Supreme's Handiwork.  See http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aez.SQHDhS0E

I encourage everyone to support this bill.   Too often, corporate directors shirk responsibility by claiming that they "reasonably relied" on their expert advisors, denying defrauded investors (i.e., anyone with a 401(d)) the relief they deserve.  And in a system dependent upon the integrity and diligence of such advisors (given SEC's inability to police everyone all the time), encouraging accountants, lawyers and advising underwriters to quake in their shoes a bit will clean things up and give us some much needed confidence.