Click here for Part One of this Three-Part Series. * * * * * False Claim #2: A move to IFRS would restore the public trust in accounting standards. I'm going to present three examples – one from 2007 and…
Dear Reader, This essay is far too long for one blog post. For that reason, I have chopped it into three pieces, with links at the end of each one to take you to the next. I apologize for any…
Below is an email I received from Lynn Turner. My several comments are in brackets, and the italics/bolding are all supplied by yours truly (I also took the liberty of fixing a couple of minor typos): "One of the interesting…
As told to me by a faculty member at Ohio State, who heard it in a presentation by Eugene Flegm, former general auditor for General Motors: Some years after the end of World War II, GM was negotiating a new…
"…[W]e know there are going to be challenging issues to resolve under any [IFRS] incorporation decision. The issues of LIFO and contingencies immediately come to mind. But even with all of this, I would offer up one final thought for…
When I was at the SEC (1992 – 93), one of the senior staff members whom I admired greatly for his competence and integrity was Robert Bayless, the Chief Accountant for the Division of Corporation Finance. ("Corp Fin" is the…
The minutes of the latest meeting of the SEC Staff with the CAQ SEC Regulations Committee provide an indication of what may be coming soon on the IFRS adoption front: "Jill Davis [Associate Chief Accountant in the Division of Corporation…
I have been hearing rumors that the SEC is getting ready to come out with its IFRS adoption plan any time now. Richard Breeden, a distinguished former SEC chair, and now the head of a $2 billion international investment fund,…
Last June, the IASB issued revisions to IAS 19, Employee Benefits. The accompanying press release would have us believe that the five-year project resulting in incremental changes to the accounting for pension costs are a significant improvement; unfortunately, they are…
Two of my favorite columnists, Floyd Norris and Jonathan Weil have put in their two cents worth on the implications of the Greek bond accounting issues brought to the fore by the IASB's letter to the European Securities and Markets…