The first week of classes is often so hectic that harried faculty cannot see many positives from the experience. I am teaching our introductory PhD seminar, and I find that my attitude is a bit more positive than usual after week one, mainly because of the papers we cover the first week. This post offers [...] Read more > >
In an surprise announcement, the FAF announced today that FASB chairman, Robert Herz, will retire two years ahead of the end of his term. FASB board member Leslie Seidman will serve as acting chairman from Oct. 1. A WSJ article reports that “[FAF President Jack] Brennan said in an interview that the decision to step [...] Read more > >
okay so this is supposed to be a blog, not a Q&A, but i’m in a quandry. I have always thought, based on a former MBA student Danielle De-Martino, who worked for a company that did factoring .. that most of the time this was done merely to outsource the credit & collection function. However, [...] Read more > >
A Harvard U evoluntary psychology recently was accused of fabricating data… bad situation of course. One of The University of Texas psychology faculty members wrote about this event; he’s quite smart. He and I overlapped at the University of Illinois in the 1980′s – he in psychology and me, down the street in “commerce.” We [...] Read more > >
In recent months, it seems I’m seeing an increasing frequency of references to “sustainability reporting,” “integrated reporting,” “triple bottom line,” and other monikers. In Edith Orenstein’s FEI Financial Reporting Blog this morning, guest author Tom Hood from the Maryland Association of CPAs includes news of the creation of the International Integrated Reporting Committee. They’ve got a [...] Read more > >
How do we measure the quality of a panel discussion? If we measure it by the subsequent discussion it generates, the AAA panel on Financial Statement Presentation was definitely a success. Bob Lipe and I had a chance to talk with a number of people afterward, and I thought I would put in my own [...] Read more > >
If someone had asked me this question, my quick response would have been 19. (Well, it might have been something more nuanced like, “I think around 18 or so.”) But a recent post by Tom Selling on the Accounting Onion points out how in many of the IFRIC’s decisions not to provide an interpretation (i.e., [...] Read more > >
The new Frank-Dodd act on financial reform contains a section creating a Financial Stability Oversight Council, with one of its tasks being the review of (and commenting on) any proposed changes in accounting or auditing standards. A letter to one of the Council’s member agencies begins as follows: “The American Bankers Association (ABA) respectfully requests [...] Read more > >
Just got back from AAA meeting in San Francisco. Great meeting. One session consisted of a panel of preparers and users debating the costs and benefits of the joint IASB/FASB project on financial statement presentation. In general it was very good. Read more > >