Unaccountable: How the Accounting Profession Forfeited a Public Trust
For thousands of years, those who controlled and monitored society’s financesaccountantswere often the most powerful, respected, and influential members of the community. From the collectors at communal granaries in the ancient Middle East to the scribes who monitored Queen Victoria’s Exchequer, the accountant’s role has been to preserve the integrity of financial systems.\ In the United States, twentieth-century accountants played a vital role in shaping the transparency of U.S. capital...
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The most recent round of accounting scandals has shaken our economy and tarnished the reputation of a once-respected profession. The inherent conflicts within the flawed U.S. auditing system–where auditors are paid by the companies they audit and financial reports are now viewed as having little more veracity than press releases–have stunned a public that once believed auditors were their eyes and ears inside the country’s biggest corporations. Now, renewed public interest has prompted the government and investors to once again ask: Where were the auditors? In Unaccountable: How the Accounting Profession Forfeited a Public Trust, former communications director for KPMG and business journalist Mike Brewster explores the fascinating transformation of CPAs from independent voices on behalf of the shareholder to close allies of Corporate America. This vivid snapshot of the twenty-first-century accounting firm clearly examines the implications of this shift for investors, the industry, and the overall economy. Brewster’s exploration of the key issues facing accounting traces the profession from its birth in the Middle East, to its rise as one of the most universally respected in the Western world, to the calamitous scandals of the past two years, to the fall of Andersen and passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley law.Shaped by the author’s own experiences in the industry, primary research of accounting documents going back hundreds of years, and exclusive interviews with the Big 5’s major players, advocates, and detractors, Unaccountable questions the practices of the nation’s leading accounting firms, including . . .Their history of providing consulting services to the same firms they auditTheir push in the 1990s to open investment banking and law practicesTheir push for double-digit growth with no regard to the ramifications of this growth on their public mandateTheir resistance to change, even in the face of overwhelming public criticism. . . and discusses the recent reforms that might lead to better accounting practices and more reliable financial reporting.From the first accountants to the future of accounting, Unaccountable offers an up-close and personal view of the accounting industry. Unaccountable turns up the heat on an already beleaguered profession, but also shows how the best and brightest within the profession can still save the day by implementing much-needed reforms.
My Introduction to Accounting1Ch. 1The First Accountants21Ch. 2The Birth of an American Profession41Ch. 3Accountants Earn a Public Trust67Ch. 4The Quest for Growth99Ch. 5Cracks in the Facade123Ch. 6The End of the Audit159Ch. 7The Fight of His Life187Ch. 8Enron and the Fall of Andersen225Ch. 9Accounting 101255Ch. 10The Future of Accounting281Notes299Bibliography315Index317
