SEC seeks Big 4 audit papers from China: source [Reuters]
The Chinese arms of all of the Big Four audit firms have been asked by U.S. regulators to turn over documents related to audits of China-based companies listed in the United States, a person familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. The formal requests made by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ratchet up the tension in a standoff between U.S. authorities, the companies and Chinese officials over access to the auditors' work papers. Concerns are now growing that if no diplomatic solution is found, Chinese companies could be forced to de-list from American stock exchanges.
Based on what has happened in other, international cases – Centro in Australia, Nortel in Canada – the auditors in the U.S. are saving themselves from embarrassment.
This Embarrasses You and I* [WSJ]
When Caren Berg told colleagues at a recent staff meeting, "There's new people you should meet," her boss Don Silver broke in, says Ms. Berg, a senior vice president at a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., marketing and crisis-communications company. "I cringe every time I hear" people misuse "is" for "are," Mr. Silver says. The company's chief operations officer, Mr. Silver also hammers interns to stop peppering sentences with "like." For years, he imposed a 25-cent fine on new hires for each offense. "I am losing the battle," he says. Managers are fighting an epidemic of grammar gaffes in the workplace. Many of them attribute slipping skills to the informality of email, texting and Twitter where slang and shortcuts are common. Such looseness with language can create bad impressions with clients, ruin marketing materials and cause communications errors, many managers say. There's no easy fix. Some bosses and co-workers step in to correct mistakes, while others consult business-grammar guides for help. In a survey conducted earlier this year, about 45% of 430 employers said they were increasing employee-training programs to improve employees' grammar and other skills, according to the Society for Human Resource Management and AARP.
Celebrities endorse it!
This translates from BigLaw to Big 4 quite easily.