J.P. Morgan 'Whale' Fine Put at Over $900 Million [WSJ]
Jamie Dimon will be glad this is over: "The Securities and Exchange Commission, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve and the U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority are expected to charge the company with poor controls surrounding the giant bet, which ultimately cost the company more than $6 billion."
Solving regulatory battles [China Accounting Blog]
Professor Paul Gillis writes that the PCAOB/China problem could be solved by taking the PCAOB out of the equation. "I propose that the Big Four agree to conduct quality control reviews on each other’s U.S. listings, using reviewers from the U.S. member firms. The U.S. member firms have the expertise in PCAOB standards and U.S. GAAP that is necessary to conduct the reviews. The findings of the reviews should be made public. […] What I am proposing is to take the PCAOB out of the process. China’s objections are to the involvement of another government in regulating its companies. What I am proposing is cooperation between private companies under the supervision of the Chinese government. China should not object to that. The U.S. government is out of the loop."
New Breakdown of Groups Targeted by IRS [WSJ]
The Ways and Means Committee GOP are still trying to sort this out and the latest they came up with is, "Of the 298 applications that were collected and put on hold by the Internal Revenue Service between mid-2010 and mid-2012, 248, or 83%, were right-leaning, while 29, or 10%, were left-leaning."
A Republican Senator’s Lonely Mission to Make the NFL Pay Taxes [BBW]
Tom Coburn wants the NFL to pay some taxes: "The PRO Sports Act proposed by the Republican lawmaker would prohibit professional sports organizations with annual revenue of more than $10 million from filing as nonprofit organizations. In addition to the NFL, the bill would also change the status of the National Hockey League, golf’s PGA Tour, and the ATP World Tour in tennis, among other professional sports groups."
Get Yourself Going with These Motivational Wallpapers [Lifehacker]
Just in case you need help getting through this Thursday.
Public Masturbation Declared Legal in Sweden After Landmark Trial [Gawker]
"For this to be a criminal offence it's required that the sexual molestation was directed towards one or more people," [public prosecutor] Olof Vrethammar said. "I think the court's judgement is reasonable. With that we can conclude that it is okay to masturbate on the beach."
