Welcome New Readers

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I have seen traffic here increase substantially in the last week, thanks to two new links to this blog, one from My Daily Fatwa and one from The Daily Caveat. It is quite gratifying to have two distinguished bloggers (and professionals) consider this blog worth reading and directing their readers to.

But, of course, now I have an obligation to post early and often! (That’s an old Chicago saying about voting…)

There’s a strong temptation to blog about every article and every new scandal that touches on the corporate governance and financial accountability/transparency themes. And there’s no dearth of inspiration in that regard these days. Every day there are five or ten things I could write about if all I wanted was to paint, over and over, a broad picture of the sorry state of business stewardship. But, alas, that is not my quest.

This blog is about the Big 4 and the Big 4 only. I will also touch on the next tier audit firms, public company executives, regulators, lawyers, politicians, bankers, consultants and other players that operate in the same space as the accounting firms and their partners. After all, as we have seen, sometimes it’s the same guy, or his brother, or his cousin or his wife!

I have also decided, based on the inspiration that this increased attention is providing, to start a new weekly feature: Meet the Auditor. This feature will profile, picture and all , a prominent Big 4 auditor or a former auditor, so we can get to know these guys. (and I mean “guys” quite literally…) Maybe I can even improve a few of their love lives with the extra exposure…

Some topics I am planning to write about soon:

  • Deloitte settlement of Parmalat (and how they pretend Grant Thornton doesn’t exist and that the audit firms are cash poor)
  • Dismissal of charges against KPMG re: tax shelters
  • The making of an auditor – The more things change, the more they stay the same
  • Trends – Public companies hiring a second Big 4 Firm to be a ‘Technical Accounting Advisor”
  • The partnership with the best global approach – Surprise! It’s a a law firm
  • The political contributions of the Big 4 – Covering their bets before 2008
  • Dropping clients/Winning new ones – just moving the deck chairs around on the Titanic

Stay tuned!

Thanks for subscribing to the re: The Auditors feed. Please tell a colleague about the blog. Drop me a line at fmckenna@mckennapartners.com if you have a comment or complaint.