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My column on the subject this morning at American Banker is getting quite a bit of play. Dimon’s mea culpa on the loss was timed to avoid lying, again, to a room full of people – JP Morgan’s Annual Meeting is tomorrow May 15 – about how bad 2nd quarter results will end up.
Chesapeake Energy’s auditor is PricewaterhouseCoopers. The auditor is paid lass than $3 million to prepare an opinion on this challenging company. Sometimes you can be paid too little to be sufficiently skeptical…
A column I wrote for American Banker on March 5, 2012, “What Little We Know About Foreclosure Reviews Is Troubling”, was mentioned during the recent House Financial Services Subcommittee hearing on issues facing the accounting and auditing industry.
I am immensely grateful for the support of all journalists but I’m especially gratified by the support and encouragement of those in my hometown of Chicago.
It’s a curious thing that I have never been quoted in the Sun Times or Crain’s Chicago Business, and only once in the Chicago Tribune. The accounting industry is immensely [...]
It’s difficult for me to imagine a new generation of systemically important financial services company CEOs without strong risk management experience. But the newly prominent role also gives shareholders, regulators, and the media an easy target for ridicule after a corporate stumble or failure.
My latest column is up at American Banker, “Are Cozy Ties Muzzling S&P on MF Global Downgrade?” You may recall the last time I wrote about MF Global. Something about a “rogue” trader.
This post was originally published three years ago on September 17, 2008. Given everything that is going on – ongoing investigation of EY’s role in Lehman collapse, more lawsuits against the Big 4 audit firms for crisis failures, disclosure of Deloitte’s failings as an auditor as far back as 2006 – I thought it may [...]
The next time something goes terribly wrong at a Berkshire Hathaway company, there’s a strong possibility no one will hear about it. Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger won’t be held directly responsible either. That’s the beauty of Buffett’s version of a conglomerate corporate structure, decentralized to such an obscene level such that its minimalism is brandished as a feature not a bug.
Warren Buffett’s investment in Bank of America was big news yesterday and it still reverberating. Forget the “Buffett effect.” I am now enjoying the “front page of Forbes.com” effect. Within an hour of posting it yesterday the story had over 3,000 page views. It is now my number one highest traffic post for my column there.
I was recently interviewed for the radio show, Background Briefing, and the segment, “Auditing the Auditors,” that aired Sunday August 14th in Australia. The transcript and a podcast are available. I get the last word in response to a defense of the auditors by John Hempton re: the Chinese reverse merger scandals.
 Francine McKenna (@retheauditors) has more than twenty-five years of experience in consulting and professional services including tenure at two Big 4 firms, both in the US and abroad. Look for my column, "Accounting Watchdog" at Forbes.com and "Accountable" at American Banker. For more information, click "About" at the bottom of this page. Your firm can sponsor this specialized news site. For more information contact Francine McKenna, fmckenna@mckennapartners.com |
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