• Deloitte Consulting is Hiring [BusinessWeek]
According to BW, Deloitte is making 50 – 60 offers to experienced consultants a week, 800 new MBAs and undergrads have started with the firm in the last six months and 1,000 more offers will be made to 2010 graduates. That’s an impressive hiring spree from where we stand.
What’s not clear from the article is why the hiring is occurring at such a furious pace. You would think with the addition of 4,000 BearingPoint employees, hiring at the firm would be muted but apparently that’s not the case. The article cites DC’s utilization rate at 80%, so there’s plenty of work and DC is “inordinately high market share in mergers and acquisitions and other deals of more than $5 billion in value” and a new focus on “implementation” and “putting together strategy” for their clients.
While there’s no reason to doubt the hiring numbers, the article cites few specific examples of why the all the new blood is needed. If DC is unable to develop new business in a weak economy, the 80% utilization rate might be temporary.
• The Holy Grail of Accounting Is a Fool’s Errand [The Summa]
Professor David Albrecht doesn’t mince words on the issue of International Financial Reporting Standards, “Let me say it again, so no one can possibly misunderstand: The United States quest to join in a single set of global accounting standards (either by convergence or by adoption of IFRS) is a fool’s errand–completely absurd, pointless and useless.”
Okay but in case you’re not inclined to take him at his word, he goes on to explain:
What makes this a fool’s errand is there exists no reason for it. No one has explained what benefits exist that outweigh the need for regulation on a country by country basis.
I understand that the partners of some of the largest auditing firms will get rich, as will certain regulators that facilitate the convergence (such as David Tweedie, Mary Schapiro and James Kroeker).
What I don’t understand is why a move to a more independent private accounting setting organization with increased reliance on large audit firms will produce more effective government regulation when such actions in the past have resulted in less effective government regulation.
It’s almost a certainty that the market would become more reliant on the largest firms if the U.S. moved to IFRS and firm failure is a big concern since some are already preparing for it. Maybe the U.S. regulators are making like the ostrich?
And since the Big 4 were pushing IFRS at Davos and the SEC seems to be going along with things (tepidly) maybe the Professor is onto something here?
• Snipes asks ‘What’s new?’ about IRS plane crash [AP via TaxProf]
Well, to our recollection, no one has flown a plane into an IRS facility to complain about tax law.