#8 - Can We Trust Financial Information? And Should Audits Be Abolished?
Welcome, friend and future deep-dweller!
This is the second interview episode of Deeponomics—a podcast exploring the research, deep ideas, and theories shaping markets, finance, and accounting.
This episode features a conversation with investigative journalist and accounting expert Francine McKenna, founder of the Substack newsletter The Dig, which explores the underexamined mechanics of auditing, regulation, and financial truth.
The discussion centers on the role of audits, the nature of accounting, and whether financial information can really be taken at face value. Beneath the numbers, it asks: who is the financial information for, who verifies it—and can they be trusted?
Topics explored include:
- What accounting actually is—and whether it reflects economic reality
- The role and limits of audits in protecting investors
- Why the Big Four audit firms face deep structural conflicts
- How financial storytelling shapes public understanding of risk and accountability
- What it would mean to rethink trust in financial reporting from the ground up
This is not just a conversation about accounting rules. It is a reflection on trust, transparency, and the architecture of belief that underpins modern capital markets.
Oh, and if you are curious about her work, check out The Dig: https://thedig.substack.com
Subscribe to follow along as each episode unpacks academic work, interrogates market assumptions, and ventures beneath the surface of financial storytelling.
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