PPG to cut 1,000 jobs

"We do not engage in off-balance-sheet transactions, and the PPG pension fund is fully funded."

PPG is a very conservative company interested in the long haul. How long have those paint swatches been outdoors along the Pa Turnpike seeing how they do in actual weather?

Deloitte & Touche, PPG's auditing firm, was paid $1.7 million for auditing and another $3 million for consulting in 2001, LeBoeuf said. "That pales in comparison to Enron. We believe that the principle business of our auditor should be to audit."
It seems like their principle business was to sell you consulting services, which was nearly twice their accounting bill.
Not that I can blame them for using the same company to do both as it knows te business the best. What needs to be done is a total seperation of the auditing firms and consulting firm. This 'chinese wall' between the two (see Merrill Lynch and their stock recommendations for InfoSpace) is just so much garbage.

How long have those paint swatches been outdoors along the Pa Turnpike seeing how they do in actual weather?

As long as I can remember.
Must be at least 35-40 years.
But in all fairness, I don't really know how long the actual tests are conducted.
I had always assumed that they occasionally replaced some to begin tests on a new batch every so many years.

To me the most interesting thing is the Bush administration holding Arthur Anderson responsible. It was many a stock scandal ago that the regulations were changed making it manditory that publicly traded companies have an outside CPA firm audit the books and certify their accuacy. They knew that companies in trouble would lie to the public and stockholders. But CPA firms were to be required and they would be pure as the driven snow.

It took a while but over the years firms began to buy their accountants. The company would lie and the accountant would swear to it. ... for a big enough "consulting" fee. When a company got caught the accounting firm fired an underling and then walked away, free to do the same dastardly act again. It seems to me that if your only purpose is to audit a companies books and certify that they are accurate, and you certify that crooked books are not crooked, the people who do it are at least as guilty as the company that has the crooked books. A publicly traded company can't cook its books unless the CPA firm lies for them.

The wall street Journal today is so surprised that Arthur Anderson is going to trial and will not cop a plea in return for cooperation with the justice department. The Journal reporter can't fathom why the Arthur Anderson would prefer the company be convicted and go our of business rather than plead guilty to a lesser charge. He seems to imply that they would only be required to open their records and personel so as to fully cooperate in the prosecution of Enron.

Figureing out why Anderson can't do that should be so simple even a reporter could do it. The Anderson brass can't let the DOJ lawyers look at what they, in the name of Anderson, have done. It seems to me that the most likely reason is that if the DOJ got a look inside Anderson they would find that Enron was the tip of the iceburg. It seems a good bet that all the top brass at Anderson were involved in cooking the books for lots of companies. They have decided that is is better to lose hundreds of millions in company value rather than spend their golden years in the clink and their personal fortunes paying damages to investors they helped rip off.

One thing that did strike my notice was the confession by the management of Adelphia Cable. The founding family had done a 2.9 billion stock offering. Adelphia took the money loaned it to the founding family who used it to by Adelphia stock. It gives a whole new meaning to pulling yourself up by your boot straps.

I found it intenteresting that last Actober and again in January of this year Deloite and Touche found no reason to oppose this little scheme. But after Enron, it seems likely the accountants made Adelphia come clean and confess. Lots of firms and accountants are getting that old time religion. That is a very good thing.

I don't feel sorry for the Anderson employees. They are like the guy that cleans cars for the car thief. They had to know what the company was doing. The help always knows. Just like the car washer who knew he as washing stolen cars, they knew thay were putting funny numbers in the books. In any event the jobs of auditing the books won't go away.Companies if anything will add each column more than twice. And the underlings at Arthur Anderson will soon have new jobs.... Most likely with a much more ethical employer.

Accounting firms for publicly traded firms are supposed to be public guardians. They examing a firm's books and certify that the company is on the up and up. When they don't do that,they are worse than the crook that bribed them.

If the Bush admistration cleans up the accounting firms, the fake books problem will go away. If only the company brass that cooked the books got punished, and accounting firms got a clean bill or just a wrist slap, accounting firms would be open to bribery as early as next Monday.

A surprised bump for Tator's good commentary!!!