Explaining the Truth- the 'Net' truth

Today, the students had to analyze a case study of Altera. Back in the 2001 era it was another tech firm that wrote off hundred million dollar plus of inventory. At the end of the analysis a student asked a simple question- how come no one saw that the forecasts were too high? The moment of truth had arrived- so I had to tell her that quite a number of people had figured out the truth, but the executives of a number of the firms were doing everything possible to pump up the stock price so that they could cash in their options. The stock price attraction made many of them issue false or erroneous forecasts that led to real damage. A few culprits, including Bernie of WorldCom, have been punished; many have escaped any punishment.