• Archive for the ‘Pure Content’ Category

    Mick Mulvaney, the CFPB and a “thing”

    By • Apr 29th, 2018

     Warning:  Coarse language, because we may get a lot of snow in Chicago but we’re no snowflakes. Last week I went to an American Bankers Association Conference for bank government relations executives. I wrote a story about some things that Mick Mulvaney, the interim director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (and also a cabinet member […]


    Update: KPMG: The Indictments

    By • Apr 21st, 2018

    Just a reminder to my readers: The mystery outside consulting firm that helped KPMG analyze the data Brian Sweet andCynthia Holder allegedly brought over from the PCAOB is still a mystery. It’s also a mystery why any firm like KPMG, who touts a new KPMG MAcc focused on data analytics, would have to hire an outside firm to crunch data. That’s unless KPMG is not the only firm that used this outside consultant, and the effort to improve inspection results was a joint effort of more than one firm. I’d love to hear more about this mysterious consulting firm that would do what no one inside KPMG could, or would, do. Leave a comment here, one I can leave unposted, if you wish to communicate confidentially or DM me on Twitter @retheauditors for Signal encrypted confidential messaging instructions.


    Another Update on the Case of FDIC v PricewaterhouseCoopers re: Colonial Bank

    By • Apr 8th, 2018

    On February 28 the US Justice Department fined Deloitte & Touche LLP $149.5 million for alleged fraud against the government related to its role as the independent outside auditor of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp. Also: The damages phase of the FDIC v. PwC case regarding Colonial Bank is set to begin in Washington DC on March 20.


    Revenue Recognition is Coming: Part 2

    By • Sep 7th, 2017

    I’ve been coaching my colleagues on how to spot updates and interesting anecdotes about revenue recognition during the second quarter earnings season. Now we are catching up on the Qs filed and comparing disclosures after concentrating on what was said in earnings releases and calls.


    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.


    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.


    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.


    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.


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