About 10 years ago (maybe more... the older I get, the faster time flies), I attended a conference at the SEC where an FASB board member, Michael Crooch, averred that IFRS was no better or worse than GAAP--but that GAAP…
I speak U.S. GAAP most of the time, so when I prepare to deliver courses on International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS or IAS are basically interchangeable acronyms), I begin by re-reading some of the key standards, focusing especially on those…
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…
Every three months, the SEC Regulations Committee of the AICPA takes SEC staff members to lunch, and discuss emerging issues relating to SEC financial reporting rules and regulations. Sometimes the SEC will use the Regs Committee as a conduit to…
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…
In Finance 101 it is taught that the decision to acquire assets involves two steps. First, you figure out which assets you want to acquire (capital budgeting), and second, you figure out how to pay for them (capital structure). If…