Reading: Santoro/Strauss: Wall Street Values The (mis)valuation of mortgage backed securities on the balance sheets of Wall Street firms at the end of 2007 never really escalated as reflecting a major failure by the big accounting/assurance firms that provided clean opinions to Wall Street firms at the end of 2007. Do you think that the failure of the big accounting firms to recognize the issues with the valuation of mortgage backed securities at the end of 2007 reflects on their lack of independence and over- reliance on client methodologies? Or, was it, and does it continue to be too much to expect of independent accountants to have a truly independent perspective on valuation given the complexity of the securities and the thinness of the markets at that time or do you have another perspective