The KPMG/PCAOB scandal is neither the first or last time a Big 4 firm reminded us that there’s nothing special anymore about being a Big 4 firm professional The firms, and their partners, are not capitalist eunuchs, immune from perverse incentives that advocates for free markets say, if big enough, can corrupt anyone.
My MarketWatch colleague Andrea Riquier took a field trip to Indiana earlier this year on a tip about a group that helps people struggling to get their act together and prepare for home ownership. It’s a nice thing to see, given all the ongoing struggles many still have with jobs, finances and the challenges of this economy, especially in the heartland.
Here are my remarks from the panel discussion on non-GAAP metrics I participated in onNovember 7, 2016 at NYU Stern.
The TBW v. PwC trial gave the public quite a few interesting disclosures about the audit industry and PwC, including some some pointing to how the firms’ finances, in this case PwC, work.
Here’s a brief look at the TBW Plan Trustee v. PwC trial, what led to it and what’s next.
Peter Thiel is no philosopher or a new era public intellectual. Thiel is, instead, the embodiment of a technocratic elitist and libertarian individualist with one goal: growth in wealth. This is part 1 of a paper about Thiel I wrote recently for a class in the Masters of Liberal Arts degree program at the University of Chicago.
As a journalist, a reporter, I sometimes have to read things I would not otherwise. My luxury as a freelance journalist has been to write what I want, for whom I wish, when I want, and charge what the market will bear. Nothing lasts forever.
One of Peter Thiel’s most interesting ideas is the Thiel Fellowship. It is also his most insidious. In Part 2 of my paper, I talk about borrowing from Timothy Leary, Thiel’s Fellowship initiative, Karl Marx, and the “iron cage” Thiel promotes for anyone not quite as bright as he.
Peter Thiel gave a closing night speech, and endorsement of Donald Trump, at the Republican convention last week.
One area I am covering now at MarketWatch is market structure, specifically the equity markets. Reforming equity markets is a big ongoing issue, especially after the May 2010 flash crash. Here’s a summary of the articles, updated for a new one on February 3, I’ve written since May on the subject and some background on some of the many controversies.
The PCAOB will vote on final rule based on its proposal on Tuesday Dec 15. If audit partner names were published in the audit report, or anywhere, the public, audit committees, investors and journalists could stop lousy auditors in their tracks. Melissa Koeppel of Grant Thornton is the best case yet for making audit partner names and their engagement history, disciplinary history, and litigation history public.
Now that Valeant has cut off the gangrenous Philidor arm, we may never know the true extent of any accounting manipulation or fraud. And then again it may all come out when the rest of the organization is scrutinized. I’d say be prepared for big inventory writeoffs, or maybe even a restatement.
