Final answer:
The documents provided do not specifically state Greg Whalley's reaction to Enron being $500 million short of its earnings target. Instead, they highlight the broader issue of failures in corporate governance and ethical challenges that were prevalent in corporate scandals like Enron, Lehman Brothers, and WorldCom.
Step-by-step explanation:
The provided materials do not contain a direct quote attributed to Greg Whalley, Enron's soon-to-be president, about being $500 million short of its earnings target. However, the Enron scandal, a paradigmatic example of corporate greed and fraudulent behavior, reveals that corporate governance often fails to provide accurate information and oversee executives appropriately. Similar themes can be seen in other financial scandals that have shaken confidence in corporate America, such as the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the bankruptcy of Bear Stearns, or the WorldCom scandal.
When faced with significant ethical challenges, executives at Enron and other companies were found to have used various tactics to hide losses, manipulate earnings, and deceive shareholders and the public, contributing to a culture of corruption and the eventual exposure and collapse of these corporations. Greg Whalley's actual response to the shortfall at Enron is undocumented in the provided text, which instead points to a systemic issue of malfeasance within the corporate world.