Accounting

I have long suspected that “protecting” America’s financial statement users from “bad” financial statements is a futile task.  The FASB’s efforts at revamping its Statement 5, on loss contingencies, confirms the suspicion.  It’s not that we have too many bad financial statements.  It’s that the users — including some who hold advanced business degrees and certifications — lack common sense.  Common sense may also be in short supply at the FASB. [click to continue...]

Great news just in from Wachovia: It’s “fair value” rose by an astonishing 750 percent overnight, to $15.1 billion from $2.16 billion. That’s right. Yesterday at this time, Wachovia was supposedly worth only $2.16 billion — in the eyes of government regulators who were trying to force it into an arranged marriage with Citigroup. Turns out that the regulators were wrong. The market had other ideas.

Congress take note: regulators can get it wrong on both ends — high and low. Lucky for Wachovia’s shareholders — and the financial markets — Wachovia’s board didn’t listen. Best to let the market do its work and get out of the way.

Speaking of which, what about U.S. GAAP’s “fair value” accounting regime? How much was Wachovia really worth 24 hours ago? Either U.S. GAAP was lying then or it’s lying now. What’s the point of having companies report assets at “fair value” when fair value is so context-dependent and fluctuates by 750% in a matter of hours? Fair value makes sense in some contexts, particularly in highly liquid markets. In others, it is likely to be materially misleading.

If you buy the notion that a bank bailout is necessary — and many of us do not — the bill passed last night by the Senate is seriously deficient in terms of governance and oversight.  It should, therefore, be rejected by the House. [click to continue...]

109 pages were not enough to drown dissent in the U.S. House, but maybe an entire ream will be. The latest Senate bank bailout bill fills 451 pages. Despite its length, it features stunning gaps in logic. What else should we expect from roughly 350 pages of legalese written between Sunday and Wednesday afternoon?

Example: The entire bill is aimed at empowering the Secretary of the Treasury to buy “troubled assets,” defined in the excerpt reproduced below. Included among these poor creatures are things they call “other financial instruments” which the drafters forgot to define. Maybe it was intentional? Observe: [click to continue...]

Some commentators — including Lynn Turner — have pointed out that Section 132 of the bailout draft appears to be an effort by Congress to empower the SEC to immediately suspend mark-to-market accounting, bypassing normal due process rule making with an “order” that would not require public notice or comment. [click to continue...]

Fair value accounting is coming under fire, now, from various directions including Newt Gingrich and a number of banks and economists. Apparently, some banks (though not all) think it unfair that Wachovia should be bought for $2.16 billion when it’s balance sheet reports $75.1 billion in net assets. [click to continue...]

As fur flies in Washington over technicalities of the government’s proposed bank bailout, ordinary mortals may feel left out of the conversation if for no other reason than the rarified vocabulary of the debate. What, for example, is this thing called “fair value accounting”? Why should anyone but accounting geeks care?

One answer comes courtesy of Lynn Turner, former SEC Chief Accountant, who today circulated a message reproduced below with his permission: [click to continue...]

Since the SEC’s announcement of a proposed timetable for implementing IFRS in the United States, a variety of commentators have come forward asserting that IFRS would be “bad” for the United States because, among other things, U.S. GAAP supposedly offers “higher quality” financial accounting standards than IFRS and a smoother, more transparent standards-setting process than the IASB. In fact, the opposite is arguably true. Today’s news that Porsche has upped its stake in Volkswagen to 35.14% offers an illustration. [click to continue...]

U.S. accounting standards setting is truly out of control. Despite the constant drumbeat from special interests — mostly analysts and retirement plans who demand ever-increasing complexity and sophistication in accounting standards — what we get in the form of new accounting pronouncements in this country is largely indecipherable geek-speak. [click to continue...]