Financial Accounting Standards Research Initiative

I just received an email about TESS:  Time-sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences.  Anyone who is running short experiments should take a look.  They offer access to the general US population (not just students); I am not sure whether it is possible to get access to managers or investors, but hopefully someone will take a [...] Read more > >

Okay, this is supposed to be a blog. I have an opinion on SFAS 165 on subsequent events, transplanted from the auditing domain. But deep down in the opinion is a question… So the new standard (my read) indicates that if information comes to the plate regarding an “event” that existed at the balance [...] Read more > >

With Bob Herz retiring, Leslie Seidman will become the acting chair of the FASB. Webcpa.com recently (but before Herz’s announcement) had an interview with Seidman. While the interview doesn’t offer much new information as far as standards go, it does give the reader a glimpse into her views and background. Read more > >

I have been in residence at the FASB for one week and I must admit that my head is spinning with all the opportunities to get involved. I want to do them all! It’s been quite a first week. The day after I arrived Bob Herz announced his retirement effective September 30th — I hope [...] Read more > >

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 down [...] Read more > >

What’s the point of SEC filings? If someone asks me, “What’s a 10-K?” I’ll tell them it’s a document submitted to the SEC containing the annual financial statements of a company. If pressed, I’ll probably mention the footnotes, MD&A, etc. It’s that “etc.” part that a recent CFO.com article perked my interest about. The article talks [...] 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. [...] 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 [...] Read more > >

On Tuesday the FASB released the proposed accounting standard for leases. Comment letters should be sent either to the FASB or the IASB. The boards will jointly consider any comment letters received. So, as it pertains to leases, “speak now or forever hold you peace.” Comment letters are due December 15th. 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 [...] Read more > >

I have to admit, I’m not on Twitter yet. This, however, may be enough to convince me to join. FAF, FASB, and GASB on Twitter. Follow them here. 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 that [...] 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. But I think the analysts were so focused on pushing for a direct method [...] Read more > >

I was just perusing a Moody’s report here on standard adjustments that they make. I was somewhat surprised that they reverse the impact of the changes in a company’s (well in the case of the report i’m reading, a BANK’s) own credit risk on current period gains or losses related to the FV of their own [...] Read more > >

Read through this, get exciting nuggets for your class! Read more > >

Hi everyone, Just last week, I signed up for another CPE session at AAA (recall that I previously posted about FASB/IASB update on Sunday and how you need to be there!!). Anyway, I thought I was going to be goofing off on Saturday afternoon in San Francisco but then my goof-off plans fell through. So i [...] Read more > >

On July 20, the FASB issued a new exposure draft of their proposed ASU concerning disclosures of litigation-related loss contingencies.  For anyone who may not have been following this issue over the past 2 years or so, the FASB first issued an exposure draft on June 5, 2008 which proposed enhanced disclosure regarding contingent losses stemming [...] Read more > >

I recently read a paper in The Accounting Review (Vol 85, No. 2) titled “Correcting for Cross-Sectional and Time-Series Dependence in Accounting Research” by Ian Gow, Gaizka Ormazabal, and Daniel Taylor. The paper deals with how to adjust for clustering across two dimensions (normally firm and year). After reading the paper I was was curious how [...] Read more > >