MARKETS A huge scandal not being reported today because "it's too complicated????"concerning Royal Dutch Shell deliberately overstating their "proven reserves" by 3.9 billion barrels. They've been doing this since at least 1996. This is really a shock to all markets because Royal Dutch Shell is a huge player. Oil prices could go to $40 or higher. This is "old Europe" where Lords, and Counts, and Barons run big companies; the head of Shell go to FT:

Sir Philip Watts, chairman, infuriated many shareholders by failing to turn up to answer analysts' and investors' questions on one of the company's most damaging admissions in years, leaving this to underlings.

.So what happens here happens there. Again. Shell has over $1.6 billion in companies and all of them are being downgraded by Moody's as I write this. Following by Forbes and FT

......the Aa1 issuer rating and long-term debt ratings of Shell Oil Company, as well as the Aa2 rating for global senior notes of wholly-owned subsidiary Pennzoil-Quaker State; the Aa3 rating for auction preferred stock of Shell Frontier Oil & Gas, Inc.; and the A1 issuer rating of Coral Energy Holding LP, an energy trading subsidiary owned 91% by Shell Oil Company.
Also under review for downgrade are Motiva Enterprises LLC's A1 and Prime-1 ratings for global bonds, industrial revenue bonds, and commercial paper; and Deer Park Refining LP's A1 senior note and Prime-1 commercial paper ratings. Both entities are joint-ventures owned 50% by Shell Oil.

This gives the OPEC thugs even more clout. It seems that businesses all over the world have been cheating, not just here. Keep in mind that there is only a form of Free Enterprise in Europe. Old Europe is cartels and old line huge labor unions and they cover for each other. You may find that the government knew about this for a long time and did nothing.
And another juicy one in Europe but it also involves---tadaaa---Arthur Anderson as their bookkeeper.

Adecco, the world's leading recruitment company, added its name yesterday to Europe's growing list of accounting scandals when it revealed that chaotic auditing had stopped it from completing its annual bookkeeping.

The Swiss-based company, which used to use Arthur Andersen, Enron's auditor, before switching to Ernst & Young in 2001, said it had uncovered "material weaknesses" in the internal controls of the company's North American operations during a routine audit of the company's finances.

And the hits just keep on coming.