When there's a string of corporate meltdowns, Wall Street gets a very bad case of the jitters. It happened a few years ago, didn't it? The sudden discovery that a major company we thought was doing well is actually in big trouble doesn't exactly inspire investor confidence. In some cases, some unusually "creative accounting" conceal how bad things really are for some time. Of course, the fundamentals of financial viability never really change. Your outgo and your income, your losses and your gains have to at least balance, and it's management's job to, of course, be sure that they do.