A great read, highly recommended. Soll’s book is subtitled “Financial Accountability and the Rise and Fall of Nations.” It includes:
“… Rather than tools of administrative success, Louis came to see his account books as illustrations of his failings as a king. He had created a system of accounting and accountability, and now he began breaking up the central administration of his kingdom. … If good accounting meant facing the truth when the news was bad, Louis, it seemed, now preferred ignorance.” (page ix)
“… There has been little to no outcry over dangerously feeble financial accountability, private and public alike.” (page xi)
“Accounting is at the basis of building businesses, states, and empires. It has helped leaders craft their policies and measure their power. However, when practiced poorly or neglected, accounting has contributed to cycles of destruction, as we saw all too clearly in the 2008 financial crisis.” (page xi)
“Over and over again, good accounting practices have produced the levels of trust necessary to found stable governments and vital capitalist societies, and poor accounting and its attendation lack of accountability have led to financial chaos, economics crimes, civil unrest, and worse.” (page xii)
“Those societies that have succeeded are not only those rich in accounting and commercial culture but also the ones that have worked to build a sound moral and cultural framework to manage the fact that humans have a regular habit of ignoring, falsifying, and failing in accounting.” (page xii)
“In spite of laws, regulations, and an active financial press, powerful forces are aligned against financial transparency. By the sheer complexity and scale of their operations, banks, corporations, and government bodies have rendered themselves unauditable. … At the same time, it is unclear that governments can effectively audit themselves. … And despite recent threats by the Department of Justice to pursue financial crimes and the fines meted out to major banks, there have been no reckonings on Wall Street or in government. And without one, there can be little incentive for true reform.” (p. 204)
“Citizens and investors, in turn, cannot have confidence in multinational businesses or, indeed, their governments, when their own auditing firms and public agencies seem so powerless to obtain accurate numbers.” (pp. 206-207)
“In the 1795 Accounts of Pennsylvania, State Comptroller John Nicholson claimed that citizens were more likely to pay taxes, and even enjoy paying taxes, when they are “faithfully accounted for.” This would build credit and protect property, business, and American democracy.” (p. 164)