professor william dennis huber at capella university in minneapolis argues that public accounting today has abdicated its place as a privileged profession by bounding into an ever-growing alphabet soup of designations and specializations far beyond its public mandate – and for work with no connection to its original purpose: the audit. do cpas now share a berth in society no better than acupuncturists, dental hygienists and massage therapists? we wonder. – the editors
by wm. dennis huber, jd, dba, cpa, cfe
professor of accounting, finance and business law
the accounting profession in the usa has been embodied in the american institute of cpas since 1936. thus, the history of the rise and subsequent decline and fall of the american accounting profession is as much a function of state and federal laws and regulations as it is a function of the actions of the aicpa.
we can divide the rise, and subsequent decline and fall, of the american accounting profession into six periods. each period begins with a radical discontinuity with the previous period. each discontinuity is marked by legislation or legislative-like events at either the state or federal level that impacted not just the way public accounting was practiced, but also the way the profession was organized.
to read the full article
