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Should the Big Four Have Audited Financial Statements? Should the Cobbler’s Children Have Shoes?
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s member Steven Harris proposed on March 20 “that the large…
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Previewing the PCAOB’s Public Meetings on the Auditor’s Report – Where Can We Find the Bar?
How high should the bar of expectations be set, ahead of the meetings of the Public…
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The American Accountancy Regulators’ Report Card: Not a Pretty Sight
"Kee-rist. Seven years of college, down the drain." Two “F’s” — two “D’s” — and…
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A Chinese Puzzle: What If Its Auditors Really Are Barred from Practice in America?
Do you have the patience to wait until the mud settles, and the water is clear?…
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Welcome to a Happy New Year — Or Is It?
“Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future.” — Danish physicist Niels Bohr (attrib.)…
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The PCAOB Expresses Its Thanks – Mainly to Itself
A second thing strikes a viewer, about the meetings of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board…
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The PCAOB Still Wants Audit Firms to Name Lead Partners — The Case for Indifference
The day after Thanksgiving is known in America as Black Friday – the opening of the…
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The Big Four’s Survival: Does Consulting Create an Exit Strategy?
I was in conversation with a perceptive reader, long concerned as I have been about the…
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Dixon Illinois and Its Stolen $ 53 Million: The Dust Settles, and So Do The Auditors
Settlement of litigation with the auditors was both predictable and inevitable. When announced in May 2012…
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The PCAOB’s “Game Change” Proposal on the Auditors’ Report is Small Change
Edith Orenstein’s FEI Blog is a vital resource on the antics in Washington affecting the financial…
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Auditor Re-Tender Every Five Years? Concentration in the UK Gets a Fresh Squeeze
Attitudes differ about the ingredients in a ham-and-eggs breakfast. To a chicken, it’s a matter of…
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Mandatory Auditor Rotation – HR 1564’s Bump in the Road to Nowhere
“Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate,” the American cowboy philosopher Will Rogers querulously…
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Should Audit Reports Name the Lead Partner? I Asked Joe Btfsplk, CPA
Years ago I attended a memorable lecture by Al Capp, the rude and raucous…
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Re-Writing the Auditor’s Report — The Financial Reporting Council Swings a Two-Edged Editorial Sword
Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All…
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Tired Old Boys’ Clubs — A Lesson on How the Eras End
Can a long-vibrant institution be kept alive – however steeped in tradition and a long history…
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KPMG’s Independence, Herbalife’s Stock Price, and the Game of Name Blame
What does this say about the value placed by investors on the independence of outside auditors: …
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Re:Balance Takes a Spring Time-Out — Will the Silliness Please Take a Break Too!
For the first time since launching as a blog in 2008 after its run without a…
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The PCAOB’s Inspection Reports Nibble at PwC — A Reader Asks, “Where’s the Beef?”
Food beyond compare Food beyond belief Mix it in a mincer And pretend it's beef Kidney…
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Re-Structuring the Audit Profession: The UK’s Competition Commission Hunts the Woozle
After the United Kingdom’s Competition Commission issued its report on February 22, asserting that the Big-Four-dominated…
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Mandatory Auditor Rotation: The UK’s Competition Commission Stirs the Pot
For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble. Double, double toil and…
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Auditor Liability for the Dixon Fraud – Scape-Goat Hunting in the Courthouse
A nightmare of auditor litigation was predictable, when the news broke last May that the comptroller…
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Managing the Scale of Deadly Risk — Of Planes, Batteries, Cars and Guns
“Ignorance is the softest pillow on which a man can rest his head.” —…
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Happy New Year — What’s On the Accounting and Assurance “Worry List” for 2013?
For the financial information community – issuers, users and gate-keepers — what looms ahead for 2013?…
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The Great Maple Syrup Caper — A Sticky Mess in Quebec
While bidding farewell to the old year and welcoming the new, this Christmas Eve story out…
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Congratulations to a New Chicago Cop! Now — How Do We Support You?
My nephew Rory Oliver was sworn in this morning as a new police officer for the…
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Foreign Auditor Inspections? “China Syndrome” Strikes the SEC
Confidence in the American securities and accountancy regulators was not raised, when a press release…
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Re-Posting: Foreign Auditor Inspections? “China Syndrome” Strikes the SEC
Confidence in the American securities and accountancy regulators was not raised, when a press release on…
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HP – Autonomy: How Might the Auditors Survive the Fall-Out?
The toxic cloud spreads, from the implosion of HP’s $ 11.1 billion Autonomy acquisition, and the…
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HP-Autonomy: A Red-Ink Bath for Everyone
“Either nobody in this deal understood the Company’s business, or someone was committing a fraud.”…
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The Pre-Election Mood: Enervation Over Innovation
I awoke last night in the cold sweat of nightmare terror – my own version of…
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Mandatory Auditor Rotation — The British Regulator’s Latest Spin
The endlessly tiresome proposal that mandatory auditor rotation would improve audit quality – a mis-perceived solution…
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Mitt Romney Contributes to Bigger Government — A Self-Imposed Personal Tax Increase
”Any one may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible;…
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Preserving and Re-Building Trust — An Event Preview
On October 2, the Consortium for Trustworthy Organizations at Fordham University in New York sponsors “The…
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A Personal Note: Mother Takes Her Leave — Teaching Us All the Way
Our 92-year-old mother’s family gathered, to say good-by, and to honor and celebrate a life well…
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RIP Daniel Pirron — Deloittes Mourns the Loss of a Partner — And We Should Too
What internal demons impel a suicide? No reaction but sorrow seems appropriate, for the self-inflicted gunshot…
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Sarbanes-Oxley, Ten Years After — Are We Having Fun Yet?
It has not been difficult, through this summer of discontent and turmoil in the world’s financial…
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GAAP / IFRS Convergence — Has the SEC Finally Shut It Down At Last?
With the news on July 10 that the SEC staff’s now-published report on International Financial Reporting…