How's this for creative accounting? According to the Pentagon inspector general, money managers in charge of the Pentagon's books made almost $7 trillion in adjustments last year so figures would balance.

And the news gets worse ... lost receipts account for $2.3 trillion of the total, and about $3.5 trillion were corrections made to mistakes in prior adjustments, which represent a Defense Department accountant's attempt to correct a discrepancy.

All is safe, however, with our defense; Lisa Jacobson of the General Accounting Office (GAO), says that the lack of proper accounting does not make the Pentagon less efficient. What it does, though, is inhibit the Pentagon's ability to make sound business decisions.