Unintentional Commentary

In the "Life in Grace" rollo I presented during the Via de Cristo I served this last weekend, I made mention of the Big Eight Accounting firms -- which reflected the state of accountancy in my university days. That link tells of how the Big Eight became the Big Four; a significant part of that story is how the accounting firms lowered their professional standards in search of greater profits. The collapse of Arthur Anderson in the Enron scandal, for instance, followed a couple of decades of abandoning the principles that, well, I was taught as an accounting major at CSUN.

Then there is the announcement that showed up in my inbox today from the Accounting and Information Systems section of the CSUN Alumni Association:

This message is to invite you to upcoming November events for the CSUN AIS Alumni:Association

Monte Carlo Night on Friday evening, November 7;

• Doors open: 5:30 PM, Games: 6:00 PM-10:00 PM, Raffle at the end of the evening
• Roulette ♣ Craps ♥ Blackjack ♠ Texas Hold' em ♦
• Refreshments / Appetizers
• Faculty and current Alumni Members: $30 General Public: $40

I'm trying to imagine those who taught me accounting sponsoring a Monte Carlo Night. Then again, I try to imagine those who taught me banking leveraging entire banking companies on home loans that clearly could not ever be paid off.

Apparently I don't have quite enough of an imagination to have been an accountant or banker in 2008. Given what's happened, I don't think I have anything to be ashamed of.