This post examines the onion skin, if you will, of the new business combination standards. I'm going to explain the differences between the so-called 'purchase' method of accounting and the new 'acquisition' method. As is my habit, let's begin with…
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post entitled "FAS 157: Fair Value Has left the Station--But Is It on the Wrong Track?" Walter Teets of Gonzaga University and I have converted it to a working paper. The new title…
I'm going to write about auditing in this post, and my remarks are motivated by a report published by Audit Analytics on the number of restatements engendered by the adoption of SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 108 (SAB 108) on…
Would you like your staff to learn more aboutSEC reporting? Click here for a sample in-house training agenda!Call me cynical, but I am wary of accommodations that permit companies to freely choose between their best estimates and something less. Even…
I made a conscious decision to eschew formulas in my recent post on the difficulty the FASB has had in creating a standard that results in a reasonable classification of liabilities and equity. An exchange of emails with Accounting Onion…
I am happy to report that the FASB's recently issued Preliminary Views document entitled Financial Instruments with Characteristics of Equity fills me with cautious optimism that, at long last, the FASB may actually be able to create a principles-based accounting…
Would you like your staff to learn more aboutSEC reporting? Click here for a sample in-house training agenda!The securities laws give the SEC broad power to create regulations to implement the pertinent statutes. The political appointees of the Commission, in…
I just finished reading a brief, highly readable and interesting article by a Columbia Law School professor, John C. Coffee, Jr., entitled A Theory of Corporate Scandals: Why the U.S. and Europe Differ.* The purpose of this post is to…
After posting my commentary on FAS 157, which took more time to put together than I'm willing to admit, I resumed reading The End of Poverty, by the Jeffrey Sachs. I just finished the chapters about his experiences in helping…
The CFA Institute recently published a monograph entitled A Comprehensive Business Model: Financial Reporting for Investors, calling for a "...broader, more comprehensive business reporting that provides sufficient information to investors that is needed to understand the wealth-generating [emphasis supplied] activities…