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…
The Jumpstart Our Business Act (H.R. 3606) was recently passed by the House of Representatives and sent to the Senate. Without meaning to put words into anyone's mouth, the JOBS Act appears to be based on three highly uncertain premises:…
Last August, I wrote a post in which I expressed my dismay that Carl Levin (D-Michigan) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) are trying to make tax law based on the premise that FASB rules for stock options are caviar -- when…
My parable about GM's earnings-management-driven pension decisions inspired a friend of this blog (let's call him Mark) to share a story from around the same time period. I worked at J. I. Case, the farm and construction equipment manufacturer. As…
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…
Ted's Accounting Question My friend, Ted (not his real name), is the ex-treasurer of a very large public company where he acquired extensive experience in solving accounting problems. He departed a few years ago to run a business that he…
Rabid conservative ideologues believe that everything transacted in a free-market, i.e., unfettered by government involvement or regulation, is by definition a good thing. I presume this is why Newt Gingrich acted like he was between a rock and a hard place…
"…[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…