Under The Microscope

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    Liabilities can also be covered over with extensive lease agreements. Both United and American airlines owe billions of dollars on long-term leases for aircraft. Those are real obligations but do not show up as debt. Data processor EDS is potentially liable for $500 million in financing costs for computers that its customers use--an item that appears only in a footnote to a company report. And J.P. Morgan Chase has a nearly $1 billion liability as a 49% partner in an spe called Mahonia that traded energy contracts with Enron. In accounting, there's always more than meets the eye.
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