Originally Posted by
traveller001
YX probably was more influenced by one thing more than anything else. Sarbane-Oxley accounting reforms of 2002 thanks to the well known problems with Enron/Tyco/Adelphia/Perigrine Systems and Worldcom. Until then they could write off costs of promotion and even today's expenses until just about forever. Not terribly unlike a ponzi scheme. They looked like they were making money for a long time. Until then.
TH was the only YX employee happy with the ending that only because of a decent payout.
Not even close. The Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOx) doesn't deal with accounting principles (that is covered by GAAP and IFRS). Instead, the law covers things like internal controls, responsibilities of senior management and the Board of Directors, accounting firms, etc. I think you are the first person to raise the notion that Midwest employeed questionable accounting practices to achieve their financial results. Besides, you seem to have confused the term "write-off" with delaying expenses for future periods or misclassifying them in the financial statements (such as capitalizing liabilities as in the case of Worldcom).
As for Tim Hoeksema, I can assure you he wasn't happy with how things turned out. When TPG and Northwest took the airline private in 2007, Hoeksema got a big pay-out mainly due to his stock holdings. There were many other employees who made out quite well in the deal too (at least those who accumalted and held on to their YX stock). As a stockholder of YX at the time, I certainly don't fault Hoeksema or the board for getting the best deal possible for the shareholders.
After TPG took over, Hoeksema was just a figure-head and was taking his marching orders from Ft. Worth.
Obviously Hoeksema deserves some of the blame for what happened at Midwest. However, that topic has been covered here many times in the past so there's no need to re-hash all of that again.