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  • The Big Four: The Curious Past and Perilous Future of the Global Accounting Monopoly

  • By: Ian D. Gow, Stuart Kells
  • Narrated by: Wayne Shepherd
  • Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (13 ratings)

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The Big Four: The Curious Past and Perilous Future of the Global Accounting Monopoly

By: Ian D. Gow, Stuart Kells
Narrated by: Wayne Shepherd
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Publisher's Summary

With staffs that are collectively larger than the Russian army and combined revenues of over $130 billion a year, the Big Four accounting firms - Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, and KPMG - are a keystone of global commerce. But leading scholar Ian Gow and award-winning author Stuart Kells warn that a house of cards may be about to fall.

Stretching back to the Medicis in Renaissance Florence, this book is a fascinating story of wealth, power, and luck. The founders of the Big Four lived surprisingly colorful lives. Samuel Price, for example, married his own niece. Between the world wars, Nicholas Waterhouse collected postage stamps while also hosting decadent parties in his fashionable London home.

All four firms have endured major calamities in recent decades. There have been hundreds of court cases and legal prosecutions for failed audits, tax scandals, and breaches of independence. The firms have come so close to “extinction level events” that regulators have required them to prepare “living wills”. And today, the Big Four face an uncertain future thanks to their push into China, their vulnerability to digital disruption and competition, and the hazards of providing traditional services in a new era of transparency.

This account of the past, present, and likely future of the Big Four is essential listening for anyone perplexed or fascinated by professional services, working or considering working in the industry, or simply curious about the fate of the global economy.

©2018 Ian D. Gow and Stuart Kells (P)2018 Ian D. Gow and Stuart Kells

What listeners say about The Big Four: The Curious Past and Perilous Future of the Global Accounting Monopoly

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Just a weak history of accounting

This was really just a very poor history of accountants mostly related back to the Medici’s. No big insights and mostly negative on the large accounting firms without any consideration of the positives they may have contributed.

I was very disappointed with this book. It could have been a critical analysis of the big firms and the profession, however, it simply achieves criticism. What a shame.

Some interesting aspects regarding the big firms in China, where the government is trying to grow organic competition but that didn’t attempt to consider the down side of government control over audits if that happens.

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good book well read

Very well read, provided a great summary of the history of the big 4 and the trajectory of them and the accounting industry more broadly.

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