Article: A financier's villain behind the bank mess: 'Bean counters'

Andrew Ross Sorkin The New York Times Media Group
International Herald Tribune
07-02-2008
A financier's villain behind the bank mess: 'Bean counters'
Byline: Andrew Ross Sorkin The New York Times Media Group
Edition: 4
Section: FINANCE/BUSINESS

Some blame the rapacious lenders. Others point to the deadbeat borrowers. But Stephen Schwarzman sees another set of culprits behind all the pain in the financial industry: the accountants.

That's right, the "bean counters."
A new accounting rule - "an accounting rule!" - partly explains why the U.S. financial system looks so wobbly these days, he says.

Schwarzman, the co-founder of the private equity firm Blackstone Group, has been espousing this ...