The Numbers Racket

Time was when people had the highest regard for accountants; they were thought of as honest to a fault, incorruptible and someone who could be relied on to give an objective, unbiased and professional assessment or opinion. Not anymore. Recent history has revealed that they are as corrupt as the next guy.  Probably more so, given the fact that some of the biggest financial scandals of the last ten years have been made possible by those great accounting firms whose reports were once quoted like some sacred texts.

A case in point is Ernst & Young's involvement in the Lehman Bros. debacle. It now seems that those extremely competent accountants were either duped by their clients or they didn't do their job properly...or they just looked the other way while collecting $150 million in fees in a ten-year period.  Either way, they have a lot of explaining to do to the New York State Attorney General, who has filed a lawsuit trying to recover those fees.

Another myth bites the dust.

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