In his analysis of the Dell fraud for Forbes, Edward Hess comments: "Too often, the market's maniacal focus on creating ever-increasing quarterly earnings drives bad corporate behavior, as it apparently did at Dell. That behavior produces non-authentic earnings that obscure what is really happening in business. Short-termism can result in a range of corporate and financial games that may enrich management at the expense of market integrity and efficient investor capital allocation." Comment on Hess's statement from two(2) perspectives: earnings management and financial analysts earnings projections. Explain the difference between financial statement fraud and disclosure fraud. How did Dell use each one to produce materially misstated financial results

As earnings naturally represent the managements ability and success, earnings is the item that is most prone to be misrepresented.

we know that projections are forecasts that are never 100% correct and these projections are extremely sensitive to macro environmental factors.

Financial statement fraud refers to intentional, fraudulent misrepresentations and miscalculations in the financial statement accounts, balances and cash flows. such fraudulent alterations are usually done at the accounts level and in those accounts and transactions.

Disclosure fraud refers to fraudulent activities and misrepresentations that are done by not including balances, hiding real figures and not disclosing essential and material items that are necessary to be disclosed.

Explanation: