A couple of weeks ago, I concocted a cautionary tale for undergraduate students out of Proposed ASU No. EITF100F, which dealt with the accounting for a health insurer's legal costs arising from malpractice cases. If you are looking for a…
If you are teaching an accounting class, here's a simple and timely (I'll explain why, later) assignment for your students: Facts: Company XYZ is a manufacturer that is being sued by a person claiming that she was injured from using…
According to the American Bankers Association's August 5th letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the banking industry will be fundamentally changed if the FASB were to require banks to account for its loans at fair value. Everybody who thinks that…
In researching an IFRS question recently, I stumbled across a whole new (for me) source of stealth guidance put out by the IASB's International Financial Reporting Interpretations Committee (IFRIC). I am referring to official descriptions of issues that were presented to IFRIC,…
When I started my blog almost exactly 3 years ago now, my opening strategy was to work down a rather limited personal inventory of pet peeves. I wanted to stay above the fray, but that proved impossible. I soon became hopelessly…
I can't cite chapter and verse for this, but experience tells me that there is a cardinal rule for IASB and FASB members that goes something like this: 'If you can't say something nice about board deliberations, then don't say…
I don't watch TV very much, except for sports – lots of sports. I nonetheless tore myself away from ESPN for thirty minutes last week when a friend strongly suggested that I watch an interview of Paul Volcker (former Fed…
If you think you can find a larger wart on the backside of US GAAP than the one I am about to describe, then give it your best shot. Here it is in a nutshell: a careful and cynical application…
Unlike BP, which eventually came to admit the actual rate at which oil has been spurting into the Louisiana Gulf, the FASB and IASB continually resist any acknowledgement that the gulf between the two financial reporting regimes will remain vast, even under…
On the science/entertainment TV show, Mythbusters, a zany cast of characters attempt to smash various colorful or popular myths to smithereens (often literally) using the scientific method (sort of). Can duct tape really be used to float a boat? Which…