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Comment by neurotech1 | Hacker News Reader

Let's not forget, these are the same consultants that did work for Enron, work leading up to the 2008 financial crisis.[0] McKinsey is also advising various government agencies on optimizing their Covid-19 response[1], generating revenue of $100m and counting.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McKinsey_%26_Company#Controver...

[1] https://www.propublica.org/article/how-mckinsey-is-making-10...

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Worse. Most of Enron management was directly sourced from McKinsey and McKinsey was intricately involved in its strategy and accounting. One day the story will be told of how they got away with it but Andersen took the whole blame.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-fea...

"The Smartest Guys in the Room" told that story, and the short version is that Andersen was the auditor which was supposed to be ferreting out accounting issues (and has certain legal responsibilities). McKinsey was a recruiting ground and consultant.

That is not what this article says:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2002/mar/24/enron.theob...

McKinsey was integral to designing Enron's asset light strategy and also creating the stock borrow structure, their internal talent marketplace, etc. etc. Seems like where Enron stopped and McKinsey started is hard to place.

Consultants are often deeply entwined in their companies, particularly when people like Skilling were from the consultancy.

The auditor on the other hand has a duty to the shareholders. The whole point of independent financial audits is to guarantee the completeness and veracity of financial statements.

This type of scenario is probably the primary reason for the existence of management consulting firms: to have someone to point the finger to when risky decisions go tits up.

That and to push through unpopular decisions: "look we don't want to fire 30% of our workforce, but the consultants told us we need to to maintain our profit margin"

You make it sound like it's bad thing to help governments optimize their Codiv-19 response?

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