Current Research in Accounting

The problem with financial crises, whether they involve the US or international accounting, is that the issues (in the vocabulary of David Harvey (1987) are delimited in terms of time and space. This means that the issues overspill, first, in 'space', that the issues extend beyond the contours of the US and Foreign nations. They also engulf various regulatory and professional bodies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Public Corporate Accounting Oversight Board, The Big 4 Accounting firms, and the U.S. Congress. Relevant experience also extends to Africa and elsewhere. Capital markets have no geographical limits. Second, issues extend over 'time' where relevant experiences of the past speak to the present. The Delco study in Africa (Sierra Leone) is instructive because it exposes the limits of conventional auditing and accounting practice and theory. It introduces an important (social) mode of analysis (Classical Economic Theory) that is much more relevant to the analysis of current crisis than the orthodox view of Neo-Classical Economic Theory.