Bean Counters: The Triumph of the Accountants and How They Broke Capitalism

Description

The world's 'Big 4' accountancy firms - PwC, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, and KPMG - have become a gilded elite. Up in the high six figures, an average partner salary rivals that of a premier league footballer. But how has the seemingly humdrum profession of accountancy got to this level? And what is the price we pay for their triumph? Leading investigative journalist and former senior tax inspector Richard Brooks offers a ground-breaking expose of the accountancy industry and its secret rise to vast global influence. Charting the profession's history from humble agrarian beginnings to its underappreciated role in the financial crash of 2008, Brooks explores how the industry hides behind its 'boring' image to ruthlessly exploit the financial system which depends on it. From underpinning global tax avoidance to corrupting world football, Beancounters reveals how the accountants use their central role in the economy to sell management consultancy services that send billions in other work its way - transforming the industry from one that ensures financial probity to one that reinvents the rules for its own benefit.

Richard Brooks is a British investigative journalist for Private Eye, and author of several books. Brooks worked for the British government as an HMRC tax inspector for until 2005, followed by a year at the Treasury giving ministers policy advice.

A timely expose... A comprehensive yet wildly readable indictment of the "Big Four" accountancy firms. * Sunday Times * An improbably rollicking history of the accountancy profession... Such a good book... Any MP interested in making the City trustworthy again should take this book on their holidays. * Prospect * With forensic detail, Richard Brooks has exposed the march of the accountants from humble bean counters to a small cartel dominating modern capitalism. * John McDonnell MP - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer * Impeccably researched and written, this is a ground-breaking expose of a profession that has lost the plot. Everyone in business and finance should read this. * Ian Fraser - Bestselling author of Shredded: Inside RBS, the Bank That Broke Britain * Gripping. This is a must-read for anyone who seeks to expose corruption and bad behaviour. * Margaret Hodge MP - former Chair of the Public Accounts Committee * Truly devastating. How many more workers and pensioners will have their lives and expectations smashed, before politicians pluck up the courage to require those occupying the heights of British capitalism to get their accounting and auditing houses in order? * Frank Field MP - Chairman of the Work and Pensions Select Committee * Richard Brooks is a digger and a troublemaker who niggles away at difficult subjects in a meticulous, punchy and highly effective way * Alan Rusbridger - Former Editor, The Guardian * Brooks says things that have needed saying for many years. * John Kay - Financial Times columnist and Visiting Professor of Economics, London School of Economics *