Too much power to the Treasury. Once you get past the sticker shock and the idea that a huge chunk of U.S. banking is on the verge of nationalization, the most troubling feature about the bank bail-out bill now before Congress is Section 8. [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...]
“Sue them, jail them, make them pay,” cries Ann Woolner. “I’d fire Chris Cox,” shouts John McCain. Floyd Norris chimes in, “Had the S.E.C. gone over the records of Lehman and Bear Stearns with the vigilance it now promises for the shorts, we might not be in this mess.” Steve Covey: “Seek first to understand.” Whoa! How’d Covey get in there?
Too many pundits and politicos over the past couple of days have rushed to condemn what they simply do not understand. Woolner’s piece offers a nice illustration: [click to continue...]
While I disagree with John McCain that Chris Cox should be “fired” over recent market turbulence, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeal agrees with McCain that the SEC chair can be dismissed by the President of the United States. An unattributed ABCNews blog is reporting otherwise on the authority of an unnamed source. [click to continue...]
John McCain has lost his marbles or his principles. The guy who so courageously faced down public criticism of the Iraq War “surge” is now just another member of a pack irresponsibly yammering for some kind of vengeance against someone over the sub-prime mortgage and stock market mess. Simply pathetic. Reuters reports: [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...]
Say what? The TimesOnline reports today that through the mechanism of private arbitration the government of the United Kingdom now enforces Sharia law in civil and family law cases where the parties have previously agreed to be bound by Sharia court rulings.
At this point, readers may be wondering why the headline of this post asks if Sharia is enforceable in the United States. Answer: U.S. law confers even greater power on arbitral panels than does U.K. law. If it’s happening there, it either is already here or will be very soon. [click to continue...]
Sex abuse has so dominated the headlines of late that I was beginning to miss stories about tax abuse. But tax abuse aficionados now have something to chatter about thanks to the justifiably obscure Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (”PSIHSGA”). Apparently for political effect, PSIHSGA Chair Carl Levin timed for September 11, 2008 this shocking (not) exposé on dividend abuse. [click to continue...]
Yesterday, the SEC charged former Kellogg, Brown & Root, Inc. (KBR) executive Albert Jackson Stanley with participating in a “scheme” to win more than $6 billion in construction contracts by bribing Nigerian government officials. According to the SEC, “The contracts were awarded to a four-company joint venture of which The M.W. Kellogg Company, and later KBR, was a member.
The SEC’s complaint in the case — filed at Houston, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas — can be accessed here and the SEC’s press release, here. [click to continue...]
The U.S. Department of Justice took another ethical black eye yesterday, this time from the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan. The court held — in a widely watched KPMG tax fraud case — that DOJ attorneys illegally interfered with the defendants’ access to legal counsel, protected under the 6th Amendment to the United States Constitution.
At its launch in October 2005, the DOJ touted the case — against thirteen KPMG partners and employees — as “the largest criminal tax case ever filed.” Perhaps they should have christened it “The Titanic.” In the related press conference, U.S. Attorney Michael J. Garcia pompously proclaimed, with requisite moralistic gravitas: [click to continue...]
