Are "Financial Experts" What We Need?

The December 12 edition of the Globe and Mail ran an advertising supplement for Canada's Chartered Accountants, which began: "Faced with a growing need for top financial experts to help Canada's economy, the CA profession has produced a bumper crop of dynamic young students.  But don't let those fresh, smiling faces fool you; Canada's next wave of chartered accountants brings with it the dividends of passing through a rigorous qualification, education and experience process." 

I was struck by several words in the first phrase: "need", "financial experts", "help Canada's economy."  Based on the news over the past few months, I could have sworn it was the financial experts that helped get us into the mess we are in.  Although I don't want to blame accountants or other "experts" for the absolute financial meltdown, they have been at the centre of the problem.

Accountants and auditors have continually missed violations both recently and over the past few years (eg. Enron and Arthur Anderson and the Madoff scandal).  Some financial experts created the toxic mortgage derivatives, while others recommended them, and still others recommended them and had no idea how they worked (see Michael Lewis's great piece in portfolio.com)

The term financial expert has definitely lost its luster.  As a matter of fact, it has likely entered the oxymoron realm.  "Experts", who make such a mess of things, or, who get so caught up in financial trends that they are like 40-year-old women at an Il Divo concert, cannot be trusted with the people's purse.  So unless the new "bumper crop" has learned from the mistakes and negligence of its predecessors, they should not be allowed "to help Canada's economy".