Count down : the past, present and uncertain future of the big four accounting firms /
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| Corporate Author: | |
| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Bingley, UK :
Emerald Group Publishing Limited,
[2017]
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| Edition: | Second Edition. |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Connect to the full text of this electronic book |
Table of Contents:
- Front Cover; Count Down; Copyright Page; Contents; Preface to the Second Edition; Foreword; I. Introduction
- The Past
- History and Context; "Where Were the Auditors?"; Where Is Big Audit Today?; The Visibility of the Big Four; The Expected Attitude of the Players; To the Insiders, Big Audit Is So Yesterday; To the Rest of the World
- Accounting Is So Boring; Familiarity; Complexity Conceals; Big Audit Looks Like Any Other Utility; "Mind the Gap"; The Limits of the "Utility" Metaphor; Where Are the Critics?; Framing the Issues; Andersen/Enron
- The Beginning of the End
- The Diminished Value of Today's Assurance ProductThe Players in the Matrix
- Their Interlocking Mutuality of Interests; Lessons from Big Audit's Early History: The Great Western Railway
- Mr. Deloitte's First Audit Report; HP versus Autonomy: How Big Audit Might Survive the Fallout; Examples of the Extent of Large-Company Audit Concentration; United States; United Kingdom; France; Germany; Sidebar: Counting the Beans
- Facts and Figures on Big Audit; Notes; II. The Present State of Big Audit; How Bad Is It?; What Is Expected? What Should the Auditors Do?
- The Big Four Won't Be Here At All
- The Next Collapse Goes "Four-to-Zero"When Reality Bites, It Will Bite Hard; The Problem of Available Choice; The Attitude of the Regulators; The Financial Fragility of the Big Four
- The Tipping Point; The Model and Its Assumptions; The Grim Reality of the Calculations; And the Cause for Optimism?; The Big Four Accounting Firms Are Down to Critical Mass, Said the Financial Times
- So It Must Be Official; Accounting Standards Convergence
- Nobody Knows Where They Are; The Standard-Setters Finish the Job; In Reality, Convergence Doesn't Matter
- Sidebar: Convergence and Postponements"In All Material Respects"
- The Auditors Don't Say; Non-GAAP Metrics
- What Does "Generally Accepted" Really Mean?; Auditor Independence
- Appearance and Reality; No Value
- No Point; The Auditors' Real Clients
- Time to Reassess; Lost among the Mixed Messages; Whether Independence Has Value
- Two Cases Suggest Otherwise; The EY/Ventas Affair
- In the End, Who Really Got Bonked?; KPMG, Herbalife's Stock Price and the Blame Game; Limits on Big Audit's Ability to Innovate; Legal Standards and Public Expectations
- The Big Four's Unsustainable Liability ExposureEscalated Public Expectations
- The Firms' Responsibility; Neither Regulatory Nor Market Solutions Are Viable; Sidebar: A Case Study-Standard & Poor's in the Gunsights; Notes; III. A Taxonomy of the Non-Solutions; Preface: The Auditors
- Missing from the Financial Crisis; The Unachievable "Magic Bullets"; Insurance
- To Save the Auditors; Catastrophe Bonds for Auditors
- An Idea That Refuses to Stay Dead; Government-Backed Insurance as a Trade-Off; The Auditors' Own Financial Resources
- Insignificant Protection