The Dig Newsletter

This is collaborative effort, co-authored with Deep Quarry the newsletter from Olga Usvyatsky. If you value our work, please subscribe! The Dig is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Microsoft’s annual report rarely goes unnoticed. As one of the world’s largest cloud providers and now OpenAI’s most important commercial partner, Microsoft’s results have become a barometer for the broader AI ecosystem.

In June of 2003 I presented “Preparing for a Multicultural Assignment” to the IIA International Conference in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Hotel. I asked my dad to come along to hear me speak, and so we could spend a little time together.

The time has come for America to hear the truth about this tragic war. In international conflicts, the truth is hard to come by because most nations are deceived about themselves. Rationalizations and the incessant search for scapegoats are the psychological cataracts that blind us to our sins. But the day has passed for superficial patriotism. He who lives with untruth lives in spiritual slavery.

“Think’st thou that duty shall have dread to speak when power to flattery bows? To plainness honor’s bound when majesty falls to folly.” Kent in King Lear Act 1, Scene 1 Andre De Shields (King Lear) threatens Jerome Preston Bates (Kent). King Lear, directed by Alfred Preisser, Folger Theatre in a co-production with The Classical Theatre of Harlem, 2007. Photo by Scott Suchman.

This is a guest article from Tzachi Zach, a Professor of Accounting at the Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University. He has been the department chair since August 2025. He has also served as the Academic Director of the OSU Master of Accounting (MAcc) Program. Before Ohio State, Tzachi was an Assistant Professor of Accounting at Washington University in St. Louis for six years.

This is collaborative effort, co-authored with If you value our work, please subscribe! “[A]s we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don’t know we don’t know.” Former Secretary of Defense under George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld.

This is a crosspost of the latest from Tzachi Zach, a Professor of Accounting at the Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University on his SEC comment letter tracker project. Subscribe to his newsletter here for more about his adventures in AI-aided academic research and sorting out disclosures in the public interest . The SEC is considering allowing public companies to report financial results twice a year instead of four times.

Acquisitions are one way managers spend cash instead of paying it out to shareholders. Therefore, the theory implies managers of firms with unused borrowing power and large free cash flows are more likely to undertake low-benefit or even value-destroying mergers.

On June 25 I commented on two Capitol Account stories about the PCAOB — an interview with new Chair Demetrios “Jim” Logothetis and some not so great news about George Demos, the new Director of Enforcement. As I mentioned, Capitol Account has been writing a surprising amount about the PCAOB for DC insiders.

This is a guest article from Tzachi Zach, a Professor of Accounting at the Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University. He has been the department chair since August 2025. He has also served as the Academic Director of the OSU Master of Accounting (MAcc) Program. Before Ohio State, Tzachi was an Assistant Professor of Accounting at Washington University in St. Louis for six years.