Competition in the accounting industry?

Nice response to some of my recent posts over at Conglomerate. 

On accountants, Gordon asks: "is there real competition in the accounting industry? "

Uh, not much.  I seem to remember a firm called Arthur Andersen, but the government foolishly took them out of the picture.  Not to mention the fact that the whole idea of making accountants responsible for corporate disclosure – and indirectly for corporate failure – requires significant industry concentration.  And now the SEC complains that the few remaining competitors are sticking it to their clients.  I suppose we need more regulation to take care of that problem?

This would be funny if weren’t so sad.