The revised, updated and expanded second edition of my book -- "Count Down" -- was released by Emerald Publishing in July 2017. Following the December 2015 publication of the first edition, which had been aimed at the university and scholarly market, this new edition is designed and intended (and priced) for readers in the professions, business and the capital markets . It is available through Amazon US, Amazon UK, or directly from the Emerald Bookstore.
The post-Enron disintegration of Arthur Andersen in 2002 reduced to the surviving Big Four the number of international accounting firms that audit nearly all of the world’s largest public companies -- Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC.
Despite their strengths -- market dominance, double-digit annual growth in non-audit services and continued revenue expansion to a global total nearing $ 128 billion in 2016 – the viability of the Big Four and their business model faces serious threats:
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Widespread dissatisfaction with the standard form and language of their core product -- the traditional “pass-fail” auditor’s report.
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The persistent “expectations gap” between their perceived performance quality and the stated desires of information users.
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Difficult relations with regulators and oversight agencies.
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And especially, the questionable ability of the Big Four and their partners to survive a “black swan” financial shock – a litigation judgment or law enforcement sanction on the scale that destroyed Arthur Andersen.
"Count Down" looks at the complex challenges facing the Big Four, questions the feasibility and achievability of the various proffered “solutions,” and proposes an evolved model for Big Audit that would be both sustainable for the large firms and fit to serve the capital markets of the 21st century.
“This book lifts the lid on the story behind the financial statements of the world’s major companies. If you want to understand the system that is allegedly validating the reported data - and why the system is a clone of the Maginot Line - expensive, obsolete and irrelevant - read on. Weak as the present system is, there is a solution. It will take a major change in regulatory attitude and a fresh approach, unfettered by history. The section on the imaginative use of Big Data is worth study by itself. “
-- Duane R. Kullberg, Arthur Andersen & Co., S.C. Chief Executive Officer, 1980-1989
“Illusions of safety in size doomed allosaurus, empires, and auto makers. In his Count Down, Jim Peterson examines the fragility of the ineffectual audit regime, and the imminent threats to its survival. Peterson combines the insider’s knowledge with an outsider’s critical but sympathetic perspective and suggestions in this fascinating and insightful volume—a must-read for accountants and students of accounting.”
-- Shyam Sunder, James L. Frank Professor of Accounting, Economics, and Finance, Yale School of Management
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