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The Most Dangerous Profession, Rebecca Roiphe

Articles & Chapters

This article chronicles the history of the accounting profession and explains how it has consistently failed to preserve transparency in the markets and protect the public good. I argue that the culture of the profession is due in part to the failure of earlier administrative agencies to retain private auditors for public functions such as ratemaking. Drawing on this insight, I suggest that the culture of professions in general is shaped by the work that professionals do and functions that the profession has historically served.