The "S" Word

What New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer did in the privacy of his hotel room is likely not a crime. What will do him in is structuring:

Spitzer, who made his name by bringing high-profile cases against many of New York's financial giants, is likely to be prosecuted under a relatively obscure statute called "structuring," according to a Justice Department official. Structuring involves creating a series of financial movements designed to obscure the true purpose of the payments.

Structured finance and structured investment vehicles are also some of the principal causes of a global recession and capital market sell-off. (“Complex structured products….are at the heart of the ongoing credit crunch.”)

On my to-do list: deleting the word “structure” from my c.v.

No, Mr. Hiring Manager, I’m not really familiar with those fancy terms, I'm just a poor accountant struggling to keep debits on the left and credits on the right.