No one will ever say that U.S. GAAP revenue recognition standards are consistently principles-based, but few would say the system needs to be completely overhauled. Other than to achieve convergence of U.S. GAAP and IFRS, what will a new revenue…
[This is my fourth consecutive post on loan accounting. Here are the first, second and third.] I love finding accounting lessons buried in stories that on their surface seem to have little to do with accounting. See, for example, my…
This is my third consecutive post on the perils of loan loss reserves (first here; second here); and a fourth is going to follow very soon. My fourthcoming (I couldn't resist the pun J) post will be based on recent…
As I was sitting down today to write the second and final installment on periodic lease expense, I received this email from a friend [bold italics supplied by yours truly]: I was at the IMA annual conference …. Leslie [Seidman,…
Four years ago, I wrote of my extreme frustration over the SEC's settlement with the two Arthur Andersen partners who planned and supervised the 2001 audit of WorldCom. Six years after the fact, the SEC's slam-dunk case was settled with…
I haven't posted for a few weeks, because I broke my leg (road bicycling). I'm working on a few things having to do with leasing, but Floyd Norris's recent NYT column, "The Case for Global Accounting" has me back in…
Click here for Part One of this Three-Part Series. * * * * * False Claim # 6: Costs of conversion to IFRS can be spread out over a long transition period. All I can do here is to point out…
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…