I noticed that 'FAS 52' has been the most popular search term leading web wayfarers to seek inner peace from the Accounting Onion (click here for my earlier FAS 52 post). I play requests, so here's a riff on another…
The International Accounting Standards Board on September 6 issued a revised version of IAS 1, which for the most part tweaks the presentation of financial statements to get them looking a little more like those produced by U.S. GAAP. IAS…
FAS 158 makes it look like the 'funded status' of defined benefit post-employment benefit plans are now transparent. Actually, they are not. To see why, consider the following three transactions: Company A purchased 500 shares of its own stock on…
It seems that business practice tends toward greater exploitation of opportunities for collaboration over time. On a personal note, it has been said that people don't choose to become professors because they are smart, but because they couldn't play nicely…
Jonathan Weil, the accounting and corporate finance columnist for Bloomberg News, has written an excellent column (read it!) on auditors failing to provide going concern qualifications in reports when they are clearly warranted. I want to comment briefly on the…
FAS 52 on foreign currency translation took effect in 1982 after one of those infamous 4 - 3 votes. Like other accounting rules promulgated by the FASB, it is nonsense, for the sole purpose of helping CEO's smooth their reported…
This is a rather long post, for which I apologize in advance. It is an adaptation of a much more diplomatic comment letter that I wrote to the PCAOB, criticizing its proposed, and ultimately adopted, definitions of 'material weakness' and…
Rule complexity is not solely the province of accounting in the world of business. Just trying to list the others--taxes, securities, labor, environmental, trade, etc.--boggles my mind. But, I do know that accounting rules can, and should, be a lot…