• Author Archive

    Revenue Recognition is Coming: Following the Progress at MarketWatch

    By • Sep 6th, 2017

    Once I returned from my Stigler Center fellowship I got to work catching up on the new standard, talking to experts everywhere and working with Audit Analytics to come up with the data to support stories–by my and my colleagues–about companies and their response to the new standard. My goal was to pick some of the obscure topics that were unique or focused on a specific industry.


    Update: McKenna at the University of Chicago’s Stigler Center

    By • Aug 5th, 2017

    I’ve updated the post to point to some recent news about PwC and banks that failed in Ukraine and Spain… I returned to Washington D.C. and my job as a journalist at MarketWatch in late June, after almost three months as a Journalist in Residence at the Stigler Center at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. My fellowship deliverable, in exchange for the opportunity to study with the researchers, was three posts for the Center’s Pro-Market blog on the state of the audit industry.


    At the Stigler Center Pro-Market Blog: Big 4 Lobbies Against SOx

    By • May 30th, 2017

    The last time anyone attempted to “modernize” auditor independence rules it was the Securities and Exchange Commission, in 2000, before the Enron failure and Arthur Andersen’s demise, as a result of the growing concern that firms increasing focus on consulting was distracting them for their core purpose, auditing. The Big Four firms are now opportunistically lobbying to go back in time, before Enron, when the industry was self-regulated and mostly left alone, able to have as many conflicts of interest as their powerful public clients would allow.


    More on KPMG and the Precedents for Possible Punishment

    By • Apr 23rd, 2017

    Why did they do it? The WSJ walks around the question but KPMG may face big fines and, I think, its partners and the PCAOB professional could face criminal charges.


    KPMG Takes Its Turn With a Big 4 -Sized Scandal

    By • Apr 17th, 2017

    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.


    NYSSCPAs Breakfast Briefing: Whistleblowing Under Dodd-Frank – Update

    By • Dec 8th, 2016

    I’ve written at Forbes about the event, including some quotes from Sherron Watkins that made news. Links to a replay of the webcast and a live-blog of the event are included here.


    A Happy Story About Housing

    By • Nov 25th, 2016

    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.


    The Legacy of Mary Jo White

    By • Nov 21st, 2016

    Mary Jo White became the 31st Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 10, 2013. Last week she announced she would be leaving the job when President Obama leaves office. Here are some links to recent articles and a few choice ones from the past.


    Remarks at New York University Forum on Non-GAAP Metrics

    By • Nov 16th, 2016

    Here are my remarks from the panel discussion on non-GAAP metrics I participated in onNovember 7, 2016 at NYU Stern.


    Interesting Disclosures During TBW v. PwC Pre-Trial Period

    By • Sep 26th, 2016

    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.


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