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For the nation's auditors, the beginning of the 21st century was, unfortunately, defined by mammoth accounting frauds such as Enron, WorldCom, Qwest, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and a searing lack of public confidence in the auditing process in particular and in the profession in general.

What strategies enable a CPA firm to not only remain competitive, but also to differentiate its people and service offerings from legions of practices across the country also looking to capture greater market share and grow their books of business?

The increasing globalization of the economy has made international tax issues more commonplace, even for smaller practitioners, since any transaction that goes across an international border has tax implications.

In a classic episode of The Honeymooners, Ralph Kramden suddenly finds himself an unfortunate casualty of a widespread layoff at the bus company. He conducts an impromptu financial "stress test" and asks his wife Alice to calculate all the savings, rainy day funds, and any "mad money" she has hidden around. "Now when we add all that up, what do we have?" he asks.

When Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Doug Shulman recently announced a new round of collection initiatives to help taxpayers buffeted by the economic downturn, it was telling that he also promised that the new steps would be "revenue-neutral." Could it be that the IRS seems to be recognizing that you can't get blood from a stone and that some delinquent taxpayers simply can't pay, no matter what collection methods are used, while some others will be more likely to pay eventually if draconian short-term measures are not used?

In Rebecca Ryan's article, "Management matters, in three acts" (Accounting Today, February 2011, page 38), I think she could have given better advice to the 27-year-old "high-potential" senior manager who felt micro-managed when given the lead on an important project by a firm partner and then being asked to cc the partner on e-mails and check in with the partner every couple of weeks. I view this as more of a request to establish communication between the project lead and the partner who, I would guess, has the ultimate responsibility for the success or failure of the project. Copying someone on e-mails and checking in every couple of weeks hardly sounds like micro-managing to me. "Leading a project" shouldn't mean cutting off contact with the executives in the firm.

FLORIDA

Jonathan Seidenberg thinks I'm a jerk. But really, I'm not.

On Dec. 6, 2010, Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Schapiro spoke to several thousand assembled accountants at the annual SEC/Public Company Accounting Oversight Board/American Institute of CPAs conference in Washington, D.C. By tradition, the chair's annual remarks are usually not very newsworthy because they mainly assure the profession that the chair understands that accountants and accounting issues are important to securities regulation.

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