Two 'Grumpy Old Accountants' Launch a New Blog

Two accounting professors have launched a new blog to share their perspectives on the accounting profession and associated trends, news items, and ethical issues.

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA (May 12, 2011) – Two accounting professors have launched a new blog to share their perspectives on the accounting profession and associated trends, news items, and ethical issues.

J. Edward Ketz, associate professor of accounting at the Penn State Smeal College of Business, and Anthony H. Catanach Jr., associate professor of accounting and information systems at the Villanova School of Business, call their blog—and themselves—Grumpy Old Accountants.

The new blog stems from an accounting column of the same name that the two wrote on SmartPros.com. By relocating their content to the blogosphere, Ketz and Catanach will be able to offer more timely commentary on the latest news in accounting standards, scandals, ethics, and practices.

In their first blog entry, the authors lament what they see as a lack of leadership in the accounting profession. "Arthur Andersen (the man), Leonard Spacek and Eli Mason must be turning in their graves as they witness their beloved profession hopelessly adrift and approaching a precipitous fall," they write.

Ketz and Catanach anticipate updating the blog at least once a week, and more often as accounting news dictates.

REPORTERS & EDITORS: For more information, please contact Victoria Fryer in the Smeal College of Business Media Relations Office at 814-863-3798 or mediarelations@smeal.psu.edu.

Penn State's Smeal College of Business offers highly ranked undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, Ph.D., and executive education opportunities to more than 5,500 students at all levels. Featuring academic departments of accounting, finance, management and organization, marketing, risk management, and supply chain and information systems, the college is also home to major research centers such as the Center for Supply Chain Research, the Institute for the Study of Business Markets, the Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Center for Global Business Studies, and the Center for the Management of Technological and Organizational Change.