Category: Review Comments

• Cadbury Sneers at Kraft’s Hostile Bid – Cadbury is not about to accept such a ‘derisory’ offer of $16 billion. [WSJ]
• Not Music to Most People’s Ears – Rats are invading your city. [Financial Armageddon]
• AIG Will Be Able to Repay Fed Loan, Moody’s Says – It’s fair to point out that Moody’s also said that AIG was AAA. [Bloomberg]
• Economists Seek to Fix a Defect in Data That Overstates the Nation’s Vigor – Federal data is bupkis? The horror. [NYT]

• SEC sees evolution in insider trading – “A top U.S. securities regulator said some funds may now view insider trading as a central tenet of their business models, rather than as a one-time opportunity for big rewards as sometimes happened in the 1980s.” [Reuters]
• The Bust that Worked – Thanks CIT! [CFO]
• Degradation of the Mind – Urban Dictionary has butchered accounting terms. [Accounting Nation]
• Accountants on Twitter? You Better Believe It! – We’re here. [CPA Examination Preparation Blog]
• More Celebrity Tax Woes – Including completely the most underrated actor of our time, Eric Roberts. Best of the Best 2? C’mon, people. [TaxProf Blog]

• 88% of senior financial executives believe positions of CEO and chairman of the board should be separate – The latest from the press release elves. [GT Press Release]
• California Dreaming in Congress – “California just jacked up its withholding rates to force people to overpay their taxes, because the State decided it needs the money more than the subjects do. Most people find this sleazy and outrageous, which means Congress finds it inspirational.” [Tax Update Blog]
• IAASB Alerts Auditors to Get Skeptical on Confirmations – Don’t worry, the PCAOB is on the case too. [Compliance Week]
• PwC off the hook over Satyam? Not so fast! – Dennis Howlett has questions about yesterday’s Satyam ruling. [AccMan]
• House Extends Jobless Benefits and Home Credits – Passed by 391 votes. Next stop: BO’s desk. [NYT]

• S.E.C. Likely to Charge More People in Galleon Case – Judge Rakoff wants the names by December 15th. Trial set for August 2, 2010. The legal system easily outpaces anything related to accounting rules. [DealBook]
• Warren Buffett: Tax Hypocrite? – The man is nothing if not thrifty. [TaxProf Blog]
• Breaking: Jones v. Minkin Dismissed!!! (Plaintiff voluntarily dismisses lawsuit against ATL.) [ATL]
• Investor Groups Stump for FASB Independence – FASB defenders. Yes, they exist. [Compliance Week]
• FASB Oversight Subject of Congressional Interest – Who knew so many people were interested in accounting rule-making? [FEI Financial Reporting Blog]

• Don’t forget to vote in our two polls from today.
• “Complexity of Tax Law” Not a Challenge for IRS? – Over budgeted modernization projects are numero uno. [Tax Girl]
• SEC Madoff exhibit list now available… – Got time? 536 exhibits. [Footnoted.org]
• Pratt: Deductibility of Fertility Treatment – “Katherine Pratt (Loyola-L.A.) has posted Deducting the Costs of Fertility Treatment: Implications of Magdalin v. Commissioner for Opposite-Sex Couples, Gay and Lesbian Same-Sex Couples, and Single Women and Men” [TaxProg Blog]
• Accounting for Business Dummies – WSJ gives bad tips on accounting. [Accounting Nation]

• Ernst & Young acquires tech-consulting firm – “Capital City Technologies will become part of the government and public-sector group of Ernst & Young’s Advisory Practice.” [Washington Technology]
• Kroeker: Keep Converging With or Without Roadmap – Basically what the Chief Accountant is saying is, “Don’t wait up for us. Whatever you decide is fine, unless we don’t like it and then we reserve the right to torpedo it back to the Stone Age.” [Web CPA]
• What Are We – Laborers, Factories, or Spare Parts? The Tax Treatment of Transfers of Human Body Materials – “Of particular significance in this debate is whether human bodies can only provide services, or if their materials can constitute property of the person from whose body they come: whether the human body is exclusively a laborer, or if it can also be a factory or a collection of spare parts.” [Lisa Milot, University of Georgia Law via TaxProf Blog]
• A Growing Divide – Regarding personal debt per person to GDP per person: “[S]imple graphs that tell a powerful story.” [Financial Armageddon]
• Allen Stanford Is A ‘Sir’ No More – And you think life is unfair? [DB]
• IRS Claims 2 Out of 3 Taxpayers Now E-File – But as, TG points out, less returns. Nice try, IRS. [Tax Girl]

• Don’t forget to submit a caption for today’s contest. We’ll run the poll early next week.
• Are You Kidding Me? [Accounting Nation]
• Fuzzy Accounting Principles – Rules v. Principles[CFO Blog]
• SEC Office of the Chief Accountant Releases Staff Accounting Bulletin – Oil and gas people, get on it. [SEC.gov]
• BP Texas refinery hit with record safety fine $87 mil. [Reuters]
• In Transcripts, Madoff Called S.E.C. Exams ‘a Nightmare’ – “Mr. Madoff said that if the S.E.C. had asked for trading records or talked to the supposed counter-parties in his fake transactions, they would have found the fraud” [NYT]

• Fed should lose AIG-style bailout powers: Geithner – The past is the past, huh, Timmay? [Reuters]
• Chrysler to offer live TV service in vehicles up to 20 channels starting in December – Because we can’t squeeze in enough at home. [CT]
• Wall Street Journal closes Boston bureau – Dow Jones and Market Watch will stay for now. [Reuters]
• CFOs on the Move: Week Ending October 30 – Motorola, Nissan, Nokia all have new chiefs. [CFO]
• Not Good Enough – Gotta good job? Still need a second job? [Financial Armageddon]
• Citrin Cooperman to Merge in Carrow Doyle – Combined firm will have $80+ million in revenues and have offices in Philadelphia and New York looking to expand to Boston, and Washington. [Web CPA]

• Auditing Firms Should Pay Closer Attention to Spreadsheets – That’s according to a person who is no an auditor. [Web CPA]
• McKinsey Begins Internal Probe in Galleon Case – According to McK, this their first problemo with securities law violations. Traditions are meant to broken anyway. [WSJ]
• House Plans to Roll Out Its Health Care Bill on Thursday – Please end this. [Prescriptions/NYT]
• Picard says $21.2bn lost in Madoff schem – That’s not so bad. [FT]
• Sam Zell: ‘With some reasonable luck,’ Tribune Co. will exit bankruptcy in early 2010 – We’re disappointed, Sam. [CT]
• CIT Takes $4.5 Billion Loan, Shunning Icahn Offer – CIT “wasn’t confident in the solidity of Mr. Icahn’s proffering”. [DealBook]

• Hedge and private funds to register, open up books to SEC – Barney Frank, steering the ship: “The legislation would require fund managers to keep additional records and make new disclosures about their transactions to both the SEC and a proposed systemic risk regulator. The SEC would disclose additional information about trading to investors, creditors and other counterparties.” [Market Watch]
• Bank protesters descend on downtown Chicago – Angry people with signs, costumes. No Oprah though. [Chicago Breaking News]
• Only You Can Prevent White-Collar Crime: A Guest Post – Got it? [RTA]
• U.S. Revokes Licenses of Pilots Over Wrong-Way Flight – Solitaire is so damn distracting. [Bloomberg]
• Chicago Offers Bounties to Tax Whistleblowers – Protestors will now have something to do. [TaxProf Blog]

• Rajaratnam Changes His Defense Counsel – Raj is going to the bullpen early. [DealBook]

• Tannin ‘Blow Up’ E-Mail Won’t Be Seen by Fraud Jury – “U.S. District Judge Frederic Block in Brooklyn, New York, ruled that the government’s search warrant filed in July with Google Inc. to obtain access to the e-mail was overly broad and ‘did not comply with the Warrants Clause of the Fourth Amendment.'” [Bloomberg]

• McDonald’s closes in Iceland as currency collapse takes a bite out of Big Mac profits – Just doesn’t seem right. [AP via CT]

• Senate Health Bill Includes Public Option – …Annnnd there goes the filibuster. [WSJ]

• IRS Unit to Target High-Income Tax Evaders – The Global High Wealth Industry group will be your official government carriers of pitchforks and torches. [WSJ]

• Madoff Investor Said to Have Drowned [NYT]

• Green accounting? Gimme a break – Please consider the environment before putting forth crappy green initiatives. [AccMan]
• Alleged Informant Had History of Helping Galleon – Tipper A has prior convictions that related to tipping Galleon as far back as 1998. [WSJ]
• Nacchio re-sentencing date on hold – Apparently there’s no rush on these insider cases. [Denver Business Journal]
• FAS 157 Revisions: ‘There Does Not Appear To Be Any Benefit’ – That’s what one person thought anyway. The FASB received 109 comment letters on the proposed revisions. [Private Equity Beat/WSJ]
• Zoom cuts auditor UHY loose after merger – Goldman Parks Kurland Mohidin will take it from here. [Boston Business Journal]
• IASB recruits expert panel – “Board wants candidates to test cash flow model.” Maybe you? [Accountancy Age]