SAB 112: Let the New Earnings Game Begin
In a recent post on business combinations accounting that is related to SAB 112, I criticized the FASB for creating yet another loophole in business combinations accounting that make M&A transactions more attractive than they really should be. To recap, I described how JP Morgan…
To Catch a Chief Accountant
I received an email from the source I previously dubbed Debit Throat, providing some interesting reactions to my previous post on handicapping the chief accountant 'contest.' "I agree [with your odds] – I don't think that Neimeier is [no longer]…
Handicapping the Chief Accountant Contest
A BNA news article [available by subscription only] reported last week that anonymous sources say that Mary Schapiro has narrowed the candidates for SEC Chief Accountant to five finalists: "Jane Adams, a former deputy chief accountant of the SEC and…
FAS 141(R): Turning Toxic Loans into Star Performers*
From a MoneyNews.com story published this Wednesday headlined "Banks Stand to Reap Billions from Purchased Bad Loans," came an account of a jaw-dropping transaction. It was spawned by FAS 141(R), the latest and greatest standard on accounting for business combinations:…
More Reasons to Excise Contingent Liabilities from Balance Sheets
In responding to my previous post on contingent liabilities, a few of my kind and sensitive readers raised the following points: Why should there be a difference in the accounting for a law requiring sellers to compensate their customers for…
High Time to Abandon the Accounting for Contingent Liabilities
What the FASB calls "contingent liabilities" in FAS 5, the IASB terms "provisions" in IAS 37. I prefer the IASB's language, because of its pejorative ring to my American ears: it more clearly connotes the virtually unchecked discretion issuers have…
EU and IASB Ratchet Up Pressure on the U.S. to Abandon GAAP
The European Commission sponsored a two-day conference last week entitled "Financial Reporting in a Changing World." I was not invited to speak (J), but if I had been, this is what I would have said: Let's not use this 'changing…
Financial Statement Presentation: Will Issuers or Investors Prevail?
The comment period has ended on the IASB and FASB's joint discussion paper (DP), Preliminary Views on Financial Statement Presentation, and it looks like there's going to be a rumble between investor advocates and issuer special interests. I have written…