The “Chilling Effect”: No One Important Wants The Auditor’s Opinion
Are auditors too cozy with management and the Audit Committee? Unfortunately, that the way they all seem to like it. Investors and the capital markets suffer.
Posts
Five Auditor Independence Issues PCAOB SAG Not Yet Addressing
/2 Comments/in Audit Firm Management, Partner Compensation, The Big 4 And ConsultingThere are five big auditor independence issues that space prevented a full discussion of yesterday and that are not on the agenda of the PCAOB SAG meeting this week. My hope is that regulators, policy makers and other interested parties will start talking about these issues, too, while I am in DC this week.
Latest Way Big Four Trying To Dodge Liability
/1 Comment/in Audit Quality, Liability Caps, The Case Against The AuditorsRatings agencies and Big Four auditors don’t think they should be held accountable for their respective products. Here are some of the crazy ways they argue their case.
Broker-Dealer Audits Still Badly Broken
/8 Comments/in Latest, Pure Content, The Case Against The AuditorsThe PCAOB’s second “progress” report on broker-dealer audits found deficiencies in all of the audit firms inspected and in 57 of the 60 audits inspected. That’s not much progress.
McKenna Speaks: The Committee For Monetary Research And Education
/in Pure Content, Where I've BeenDo you want to learn more about those who push for a return to the gold standard? Do you know the common thread between JP Morgan, Madoff’s biggest feeder fund, Chesapeake Energy, and MF Global? Here’s a speech I gave back in May 2012 in New York to the Committee for Monetary Research and Education that touches on both topics.
Jamie Dimon (And JP Morgan) Besieged
/5 Comments/in Latest, Pure Content, You Can Quote Me On ThatA blog post at Medium.com last Friday updated everyone with the latest on the JP Morgan “Whale” traders who were indicted last week and assorted other energy trading and mortgage related investigations. But there’s more!
On Herbalife And The Slow Death Of Value Investing
/1 Comment/in Audit Quality, Food for Thought, Regulators, Laws, Standards, RegulationsBig egos making shares move by waving their wands. That makes picking stocks based on fundamental analysis more than slightly anachronistic. A bit about Herbalife…
Unfrugal, Lawbreaking CEOs and Auditor Reputation: New At University of Chicago Booth School of Business
/3 Comments/in Food for ThoughtTwo new blog posts at University of Chicago Booth School of Business Capital Ideas blog. One is about public company CEOs who buy luxury items and break the law and the other is about auditor reputation. Now I need an example of a thrice-married and divorced audit partner with a gambling or drug addiction who owns a Ferrari and a private jet…
EY Bets The Farm On Advisory With Vision 2020: A Guest Post From Mark O’Connor
/3 Comments/in Latest, Pure Content, The Big 4 And ConsultingLofty goals like EY’s Vision 2020 serve a promotional purpose to attract top talent, and create the rationalization for promises of vast internal opportunities to keep top performers engaged. But unintended consequences would likely foreclose any real possibility that the $50 billion aspect of EY’s 2020 strategic plan could be executed as currently conceived.
More Conflicts For The “Independent” Foreclosure Reviews
/8 Comments/in Pure Content, The Big 4 And ConsultingPwC has an ongoing independence conflict in performing the Ally/ResCap independent foreclosure review. This conflict is disturbing on two fronts.
McKenna Finalist For UCLA’s Loeb Awards For Business Journalism
/in Pure Content, Writing for OthersI have been named a finalist for UCLA’s Gerald Loeb Awards for my work in Forbes magazine last year. I’m a “professional who writes” but also a professional writer and a journalist. You’ve been warned.
Video Posted: McKenna Speaks At AAA-Accounting Program Leaders Group Annual Meeting
/1 Comment/in Pure Content, You Can Quote Me On ThatI’m in San Diego at the Accounting Program Leaders Group/Federation of Schools of Accountancy annual seminar. I spoke Sunday on the profession and its professionals.