Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Captain Renault Returns

"The SEC said it reached settlements with 28 of the audit firms and 22 partners who agreed to be censured and to cease and desist from future violations. ... 'Registration is what affords the PCAOB their oversight authority', ... said Mr Conte [of the SEC]", WSJ, 14 September.

The PCAOB is another government sponsored con game. The Big Four CPA firms audit 98.8% of all SEC registrants by market cap. Three smaller firms audit another 0.8%, the 1300 smaller firms audit 0.4%. Who cares what they do? Imagine, the Big Bad SEC beats up some miniscule CPA firms to protect the investing public. As Captain Renault said in Casablanca, "Round up the usual suspects". The SEC should be ashamed of itself. It should spend ten times as much time with the ExxonMobil audit as all the work done by all the 1300 small firms combined. No matter what these firms do, there is little damage they can do to the investing public.

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