Liabilities and Equity: FASB Turns Accounting on Its Ear
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…
If You Think GAAP is Opague, Try SEC Staff Interpretations!
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…
Is IFRS Compatible with U.S.-Style Corporate Governance?
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…
From Chaos to Principles: Can Financial Accounting be Fundamentally Transformed?
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…
FAS 157: Fair Value Has left the Station–But Is It on the Wrong Track?
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…
Accounting Convergence Scoreboard: Issuers 1, Investors 0
As I feared in earlier posts (here, here and here), but naively hoped against, the Republican-dominated SEC has carried the water for Big Business and anti-regulation ideology by eliminating the IFRS-to-U.S. GAAP reconciliation requirement. Investor advocates and other thoughtful people…
Big Bath Accounting is Alive and Well at Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and GM
In yesterday's post, I wrote about Merrill's big bath charge. Two other recent news items confirm that not much as changed since Arthur Levitt declared war on earnings management games almost 10 years ago: the big bath accounting charge still…
“Big Bath” Accounting at Merrill Lynch: Give Me that Old Time Conservatism
In a story whose main subject was increasing auditor vigilance, the Associated Press wrote as follows on November 2, 2007: "Merrill Lynch last week reported a bigger-than-expected $8.4 billion in writedowns.... On Oct. 5, the investment bank had initially said…