Losers Great and Small in WorldCom's Wake

There's little debate about who the biggest losers are in the WorldCom (WCOME Quote) accounting-fraud debacle: individual investors who still own the stock and the thousands of employees of the long-distance carrier who could begin getting pink slips as soon as Friday.

With the telecom giant appearing to be headed toward bankruptcy, angry stockholders looking to recoup some of their losses -- WorldCom's stock last traded at about 20 cents a share -- might want to consider using their stock certificates for scrap paper. That's because once a company files for bankruptcy, the existing stockholders rarely, if ever, get anything of value at the end of the process. Bankruptcy experts say you'll get better odds gambling at the track than buying shares in a bankrupt company. ...