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This is one thing of which I am certain: If finalized, the fair value provisions of the FASB's financial instruments exposure draft (file no 1810-100) would be the most significant change to financial reporting since the founding of the FASB…

According to the American Bankers Association's August 5th letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the banking industry will be fundamentally changed if the FASB were to require banks to account for its loans at fair value. Everybody who thinks that…

Not only does General Motors' CEO, Edward E. Whitacre Jr., want to take GM public ASAP, he is asking the federal government to sell its $50 billion (!) stake at the same time. That's all well and good, but I…

In researching an IFRS question recently, I stumbled across a whole new (for me) source of stealth guidance put out by the IASB's International Financial Reporting Interpretations Committee (IFRIC). I am referring to official descriptions of issues that were presented to IFRIC,…

When I started my blog almost exactly 3 years ago now, my opening strategy was to work down a rather limited personal inventory of pet peeves. I wanted to stay above the fray, but that proved impossible. I soon became hopelessly…

In the good old days, you recognized the assets you owned. For the reasons why things eventually became a lot more complicated than that, there is plenty of blame to go around. Blame the banks and their minions of financial…

I can't cite chapter and verse for this, but experience tells me that there is a cardinal rule for IASB and FASB members that goes something like this: 'If you can't say something nice about board deliberations, then don't say…

I don't watch TV very much, except for sports – lots of sports. I nonetheless tore myself away from ESPN for thirty minutes last week when a friend strongly suggested that I watch an interview of Paul Volcker (former Fed…