Accounting seems to something that is easy to offshore. Two companies I've worked at moved the low level accounting tasks to India and Macao respectively. Much of it is mechanical in nature and once the grunt work is done you can have someone local crosscheck it if needed.
The vanished grandeur of accounting
11–20 of 54 posts
Re: The vanished grandeur of accounting
#12This would be perhaps more interesting with a contemporary angle. Has anything changed in the last 30 years? Today, the internal ethics of accounting have receded from public view. No one publicly celebrates the virtues of balancing one’s books and of audits with great art or gripping characters. Occasionally an accounting hero emerges, bringing a billion-dollar loss to light, but few people appreciate it, as the Dut…
Today, the internal ethics of accounting have receded from public view.
That's one way of putting it.
Re: The vanished grandeur of accounting
#13This is a really neat article, and I look forward to reading the book. The field of accounting really is a marvelous and, in current times, under-appreciated bedrock of civilization. In the course of certain matters, I have had the opportunity to work with forensic accountants, which is a field I did not know even existed. Basically, when $100 million disappears from a ledger, forensic accountants dive in and figure…
In practice, forensic accounting is roughly as interesting as archaeology. It makes for some great headlines in the end, but there is an enormous amount of detail and bureaucracy you have to dig through to get there.
Re: The vanished grandeur of accounting
#14Considering that the invention of modern accounting was literally the driving force behind the renaissance, one has to wonder whether Dogecoin is going to be responsible for a similar reinvention of society.
>the invention of modern accounting was literally the driving force behind the renaissance //
Go on?
Re: The vanished grandeur of accounting
#15This is a really neat article, and I look forward to reading the book. The field of accounting really is a marvelous and, in current times, under-appreciated bedrock of civilization. In the course of certain matters, I have had the opportunity to work with forensic accountants, which is a field I did not know even existed. Basically, when $100 million disappears from a ledger, forensic accountants dive in and figure…
In practice, forensic accounting is roughly as interesting as archaeology. It makes for some great headlines in the end, but there is an enormous amount of detail and bureaucracy you have to dig through to get there.
There is also just weeding through to prove very blatant frauds, which can be forensic in nature, if payments are hidden in group company loans or sale and buy back deals, or discounting tax rebate incomes. I mean starting with a very obvious con, you still have to prove it. Currently a project if mine, in this way. Not huge, but close to twenty million dollar property fraud.
Re: The vanished grandeur of accounting
#16This is a really neat article, and I look forward to reading the book. The field of accounting really is a marvelous and, in current times, under-appreciated bedrock of civilization. In the course of certain matters, I have had the opportunity to work with forensic accountants, which is a field I did not know even existed. Basically, when $100 million disappears from a ledger, forensic accountants dive in and figure…
In practice, forensic accounting is roughly as interesting as archaeology. It makes for some great headlines in the end, but there is an enormous amount of detail and bureaucracy you have to dig through to get there.
> In practice, forensic accounting is roughly as interesting as archaeology. It makes for some great headlines in the end, but there is an enormous amount of detail and bureaucracy you have to dig through to get there.
Perhaps accountants and archeologists would say the same about coding.
Re: The vanished grandeur of accounting
#17For the most part the article was interesting. However one thing stood out to me:
To the audience of the time, the paintings carried a clear message: Mastering finance was an achievement requiring both skill and humility.
I don't know about humility. I mean having someone paint a portrait of you seems like hubris. Ensuring that the painting shows you wearing gold rings does not seem to indicate humility (modesty, humbleness).
Maybe the chosen painting is not necessary of painting from the period and the others indicated humility.
Re: The vanished grandeur of accounting
#18Considering that the invention of modern accounting was literally the driving force behind the renaissance, one has to wonder whether Dogecoin is going to be responsible for a similar reinvention of society.
> the invention of modern accounting was literally the driving force behind the renaissance // Go on?
Re: The vanished grandeur of accounting
#19This comparison of double entry accounting and calculus may be interesting:
http://www.austintek.com/gnucash/ncsa-gnucash-talk-3.html#ss...
Re: The vanished grandeur of accounting
#20This would be perhaps more interesting with a contemporary angle. Has anything changed in the last 30 years? Today, the internal ethics of accounting have receded from public view. No one publicly celebrates the virtues of balancing one’s books and of audits with great art or gripping characters. Occasionally an accounting hero emerges, bringing a billion-dollar loss to light, but few people appreciate it, as the Dut…
Today, the internal ethics of accounting have receded from public view. That's one way of putting it.
Its not like it went from de Medici to Enron to Lehman without a little assistance.
There's a much more interesting story about the rise and fall of 'the prefession', hyper-specialization, commodification, diversification, conflicts of interest and the (predictable) things that ensue.
The fundamental innovation has long been commoditized. Yet there are also interesting lessons about the status that accrues to innovation, and the sociology of commoditized professionals. There are reasons why ethics have receded from public view and otherwise minimized.
But the seem to escape the author's intellectual grasp or go beyond the depth of his curiosity.