1. A corporations earnings and associated ratios, such as earnings per share, are metrics that investors and other stakeholders use when making decisions. The SEC recently began investigating corporations for manipulating earnings via rounding errors. In the early 2000s, it became clear that corporations rarely missed earnings estimates provided by financial analysts. Offer your opinion on the ethics underlying these practices, any possible broader implications of such behavior, and any real-life experiences you may have come across that are similar.