Financial Accounting Standards Board

Bad boys, old boys, new thinking

March 16, 2009 General

You’d be hard pressed to miss the shellacking being meted out in the media over the banking crisis. Everyone from politicians to regulators, oversight boards, auditors and on to the bankers themselves continue to see the finger pointed at them. As well they should. But has anyone yet come up with a credible way to [...]

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The politics of accounting and bank failure

December 29, 2008 General

Over the holiday period, the Washington Post put out a piece entitled: Accounting Standards Wilt Under Pressure. The nub of the piece is that political finagling put US banks in a bind on the ‘mark to market’ issue such that the SEC felt compelled to cave into the banks demands that they operate internal methods [...]

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IFRS – hands across the sea

December 17, 2008 General

Bill Sheridan of CPA Success tells me that US CPA’s are looking forward to the introduction of IFRS. That’s interesting when I hear all the shenanigans around fair value. Even so, his recent post on the topic is interesting: Actually, a discussion via his blog post titled What I Meant in Accounting Education under IFRS [...]

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Just when you thought it couldn't get crazier

October 1, 2008 General

Courtesy of the Washington Post which amply demonstrates a solid lack of understanding about ‘value’ in accounting comes this pearl. The SEC and FASB are allegedly modifying the ‘mark to market‘ rules to allow distressed banks to take into account ‘other factors’ when reviewing their toxic assets. WashPo says this: An odd-sounding accounting phrase at [...]

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