11.   During the bull market, a lot of gimmicks were used to inflate earnings.

12.   Even if Lay did not know the details of the partnerships used by Enron to inflate its earnings, he could be held criminally liable, Seligman said.

13.   He said it disguised a decline in cash flow by delaying some payments and took overly large charges to inflate future earnings.

14.   In that action Ms. Greenwald, who now works for Walt Disney Co., also accused Mattel of inflating its earnings through accounting gimmicks.

15.   It accused executives, auditors, lawyers and other board members of improperly creating partnerships to inflate earnings, hide debt and enrich a handful of insiders.

16.   It said that Tyco had taken overly large write-offs related to its mergers to inflate future earnings and that its cash flow had been deceptively weak.

17.   Levin said the lucrative stock incentives allow corporations to dodge taxes while encouraging executives to inflate earnings just long enough to cash in their options.

18.   Over time, they say, options falsely inflate corporate earnings, provide unfair tax breaks, and threaten the wealth of ordinary shareholders.

19.   Semiconductor shares rose on hope a two-fold increase in global memory chip prices so far this year will inflate their earnings.

20.   Selling by domestic investors, looking to raise money to inflate their earnings and offset bad loans, will continue to weigh on prices.