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\nSecond Edition  \nCOUNT DOWN  \nThe Past, Present and Uncertain Future of the Big Four Accounting  \nFirms  \nSecond Edition  \nBY  \nJIM PETERSON  \nUnited Kingdom – North America – Japan India – Malaysia – China  \nEmerald Publishing Limited  \nHoward House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK First edition 2015  \nSecond edition 2017  \nCopyright © 2017 Emerald Publishing Limited  \nReprints and permissions service  \nContact: [permissions@emeraldinsight.com](permissions@emeraldinsight.com)  \nNo part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters’ suitability and application and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use.  \nBritish Library Cataloguing in Publication Data  \nA catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library  \nISBN: 978-1-78714-701-0 (Print)  \nISBN: 978-1-78714-700-3 (Online)  \nISBN: 978-1-78743-011-2 (Epub)  \nCONTENTS  \nPreface to the Second Edition  \nForeword  \n1. Introduction—The Past—History and Context“Where Were the Auditors?”  \nWhere Is Big Audit Today?  \nThe Visibility of the Big Four  \nThe Expected Attitude of the Players  \nTo the Insiders, Big Audit Is So Yesterday  \nTo the Rest of the World—Accounting Is So Boring Familiarity  \nComplexity Conceals  \nBig Audit Looks Like Any Other Utility“Mind the Gap”  \nThe Limits of the “Utility” Metaphor  \nWhere Are the Critics? Framing the Issues  \nAndersen/Enron—The Beginning of the End The Diminished Value of Today’s Assurance Product The Players in the Matrix—Their Interlocking Mutuality of Interests  \nLessons from Big Audit’s Early History: The Great Western  \nRailway—Mr. Deloitte’s First Audit Report  \nHP versus Autonomy: How Big Audit Might Survive the  \nFallout  \nSidebar: Counting the Beans—Facts and Figures on Big Audit  \nII. The Present State of Big Audit How Bad Is It?  \nWhat Is Expected? What Should the Auditors Do?  \nThe Big Four Won’t Be Here At All—The Next Collapse  \nGoes “Four-to-Zero”  \nWhen Reality Bites, It Will Bite Hard  \nThe Problem of Available Choice  \nThe Attitude of the Regulators  \nThe Financial Fragility of the Big Four—The Tipping Point  \nThe Model and Its Assumptions  \nThe Grim Reality of the Calculations  \nAnd the Cause for Optimism?  \nThe 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  \nThe Standard-Setters Finish the Job  \nIn Reality, Convergence Doesn’t Matter Sidebar: Convergence and Postponements  \n“In All Material Respects” —The Auditors Don’t Say  \nNon-GAAP Metrics—What Does “Generally Accepted”Really Mean?  \nAuditor Independence—Appearance and Reality No Value—No Point  \nThe Auditors’ Real Clients—Time to Reassess Lost among the Mixed Messages  \nWhether Independence Has Value—Two Cases Suggest Otherwise  \nThe EY/Ventas Affair—In the End, Who Really Got Bonked?  \nKPMG, Herbalife’s Stock Price and the Blame Game  \nLimits on Big Audit’s Ability to Innovate  \nLegal Standards and Public Expectations  \nThe Big Four ’s Unsustainable Liability Exposure  \nEscalated Public Expectations—The Firms’  \nResponsibility  \nNeither Regulatory Nor Market Solutions Are Viable  \nSidebar: A Case Study—Standard & Poor ’s in the Gunsights  \nIII. A Taxonomy of the Non-Solutions  \nPreface: The Auditors—Missing from the Financial Crisis  \nThe Unachievable “Magic Bullets”  \nInsurance—To Save the Aud","cbCaibWKnnbfX6UV","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaibWKnnbfX6UV","pdf",3253038,331,"English","# Preface to the Second Edition\n# Foreword\n## 1. Introduction—The Past—History and Context\n## II. The Present State of Big Audit\n## III. A Taxonomy of the Non-Solutions\n## IV. The Acts and Attitudes of the Players in Big Audit","[{\"question\":\"What central issue does the book raise about the Big Four’s current assurance product?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that the diminished value of today’s assurance product and the limits of current approaches require reassessing what auditors are expected to do and how they are evaluated.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the book explain the risk environment for the Big Four in the present?\",\"answer\":\"It links regulatory and public expectations with financial fragility, unsustainable liability exposure, and constrained choices, framing a tipping-point dynamic.\"},{\"question\":\"What kinds of “non-solutions” does the book analyze, and what is their common limitation?\",\"answer\":\"It reviews insurance-related ideas, government-backed options, unified structures, outside capital, and joint or rotated audits, concluding that many proposals fail to provide durable, workable answers under real constraints.\"}]","COUNT DOWN - The Past, Present and Uncertain Future of the Big Four Accounting Firms - Second Edition | PDF",834]