Granted, the Volcker proposal to can top management, restructure the firm, and separate auditors from consultants came a few days after the indictment. But I suspect his proposal would have been acted on ten or eleven days sooner than it was, had Berardino, a decent man who was clearly in over his head in his job, quit when the indictment was handed down.

Vital momentum was lost. It may be the final nail in the coffin. I hope not. I have been a loud critic of Andersen and have no sympathy whatsoever with those who say "it was only a few people in Houston." Well, maybe in this case. But it was "just a few people in Arizona" at the Baptist Foundation; one of 'em was the partner on the Lincoln Savings & Loan account in the mid-1980s. It was "just a few people at Sunbeam," "just a few people at Waste Management," etc.

Volcker has the right idea: Quarantine the auditors. I don't want 'em to be priests. I want 'em to be monks! Audit. Nothing else.

The we-do-a-better-audit-job-with-consulting add-ons may be true, but it misses the mark: even with disclosure (which we finally have, no thanks to the AICPA) about fees paid, the average American no longer TRUSTS us. We have spent 100 years building a reservoir of trust, and now it's trashed.

Let's deal with it. Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.

I hope Volcker's plan gets a chance in the marketplace. I'm betting it will work. I will certainly recommend to my consulting clients that they give the "new Andersen" a whirl.

Leslie

I'm sure it won't make a difference to some firms, but what hiring manager wants to have to defend their choice if there are other candidates as equally qualified but who don't have such controversy attached? It's a real problem.

To date, to the best of my knowledge, we have not gone on a witch-hunt for the profiled "extremist" living right here in our country. I think it is unfair, and a shame that people would say that all employees of Enron and Andersen are tainted and would not be considered a valuable employee. Let's not burn or persecute the thousands of good people who have and had no control over any wrongdoings....

I would hope that those who are seeking employment alternatives are not being singled out because of their past positions, unless they held upper-management positions and had some control over the situations. On another note, let's give some credit to the thousands of hiring managers and companies in our country that would be happy to hire and employ both Enron and Andersen staff....

In Enron's case, anyone who worked there is considered tainted by its culture - too aggressive, not working real jobs but just shuffling paper because the business was a sham, overpaid which implies they were bought and paid for - incited to look the other way and not question or challenge decisions. All of this leads to backlash - other regional employers who knew some of these overpaid types and now are thinking 'the chickens have come home to roost' or 'it serves them right' etc.
Andersen's staff will face the same - all will be assumed to be CPAs who survived and even thrived in a culture which did not value integrity or conservatism and sold their opinions to the client - the exact opposite of what all other employers value in a CPA. Backlash and taint are ugly things. There will be some hard times ahead for many.