Dear SirYour correspondents correctly chide you for not including the faux accounting term transparent in your list of widely used cover-up words. The purpose of the word is to convey an image of a sheet of perfect glass, and thus perfection in terms of visibility and so in the ability to assess the integrity of the numbers.

The ability to see the figures “transparently” or otherwise is of no consequence. It is the ability to see through the figures to the facts behind them that matters. In the example of the finance companies the figures looked fine. It was only when the companies found themselves drained of liquidity and thus unable to pay their depositors that the flawed figures became evident.

Perhaps you should no use your influence to try and obtain the replacement of “transparency” by an image more penetrating such as the need for an X-ray picture of them?

Yours faithfullyHuw Sidey