Category: Review Comments

• L’shana tovah to all our friends celebrating!
• Thain Says He Should Have Furnished Merrill at Ikea – Don’t laugh, those Swedes know what they’re doing. JT wouldn’t probably know what to do with the allen wrench though. [Bloomberg]
• The End of the World Is Upon Us – In Dubai you fools. [Daily Intel]
• Wall St. vs. Sports: a Look at the Top Paychecks – Think of it as motivation. For what, we’re not exactly sure. [DealBook]
• Going Concern Audit Opinions: Why So Few Warning Flares? Seriously. Bad news is the best news. [RTA]

• KPMG Corporate Finance Chief Steps Down – To get to know his family better. That’s nice. [PEHub]
• Deloitte Adds Hedge Fund Heavyweights Schubert, Iler – Deloitte making a strong move into HF biz? [Press Release]
• Grant Thornton LLP collects more than 110,000 cans of food for needy – That’s good. [GT Press Release]
• The Faces of RBI Presented by KPMG to premiere on ESPN2 – Also good. [MLB]
• Forty percent of U.S. junk bonds to default by 2013: BofA – Not so good. [Reuters]

• Why Are We Working Late? – Leave your terrible excuses in the comments. Shake Shack or In ‘n’ Out better be involved. [The Onion]
• New Revenue-Recognition Rules: the Apple of Apple’s Eye? – Revenue recognition for iPhones. If you want the geek Steve Jobs fanboy version, that tries miserably to make fun of accounting, go here. [CFO]
• Where can you curse at your boss and not get fired? In another country: Spain – If you’ve tried and failed Stateside, leave the transcript in the comments. [NYDN]
• ACL Services Releases AuditExchange 2.0 – Don’t say we never tell you about anything useful. [it.tmcnet]
• Cuomo subpoenas 5 Bank of America directors – Someone make this thing stop. If we force Ken Lewis and John Thain to go toe to toe in a KY wrestling match, will everyone let it go? [Reuters]
• Citi to pay back U.S. when recovery more evident – But we could. We just don’t want to. Timing is everything, you know. [Reuters]

• Will Allen Stanford Wind Up Calling Allen Stanford To The Stand? – We’re totally pulling for Stan to defend himself. That would up the circus rating on this thing to just below O.J. status. [DB]
• Bernanke Says U.S. Recession ‘Very Likely’ Has Ended – Except it won’t feel that way, sayeth Obi-wan Benobi. [Bloomberg]
• The Devil’s Dictionary — Financial Edition – Mark-to-market didn’t make this list so we’re not sure how credible this dictionary is. If you’ve got additions of your own, leave them in the comments. [WSJ]
• CFOs Put on a Happy Face – If you’re not a CFO, maybe not so happy. [CFO]
• Where People Die – Our initial response is: Everywhere. But for FN’s post, West Virginia has the most, which isn’t so surprising and Utah leads in births, which is even less surprising. [Floyd Norris/NYT]

• On Wall St., Obama Pushes Stricter Finance Rules – Nothing like getting lectured in your own bank yard. [NYT]
• Judge Rejects SEC-BofA Settlement Over Merrill – “The AG’s office has also questioned whether Bank of America failed to tell shareholders about its consideration of backing out of the deal and mounting write-downs at one of Merrill’s mortgage lending subsidiaries.” He might be calling Ken Lewis a liar, we’re not sure. [NPR]
• Tax evaders rush to beat amnesty deadline – September 23rd bitches. Repent! [Reuters]
• Update: Do NOT Bid On Lenny Dykstra’s Balls – Fans of Nails, proceed cautiously. [DB]

• Remembering the Horror of a Bright Blue Morning – Take another moment for those we lost. [NYT]
• Ex-KPMG exec Greg Baroni nabs $50M in BearingPoint deals Nice work man. [Washington Business Journal]
• Deloitte consumer spending index up – Nice work everybody. [Denver Business Journal]
• Leibovitz Buys Back Control of Photos, Real Estate – Nice work Annie. We don’t know how you did it. [Bloomberg]

• SEC contrite over failure to uncover Madoff – The victims, we understand you want to let them know. The rest of us? WE GET IT. [Reuters]
• AICPA Proposes Clarification on Sharing Client Information – In a word: Don’t. [Compliance Week]
• Geithner: Banks To Repay $50 Billion In Rescue Funds – Is someone still tracking this? [NPR]
• Recession Takes Heavy Toll on U.S. – There’s this…[WSJ]
• Stocks Rally to New 2009 Peaks – …then there is this. [WSJ]

• Geithner Still Pushing For Major Financial Reforms – Wait…There is still a problem? [NPR]
• Obama Says New Tax on Sugary Drinks Worth ‘Exploring’ – You thought the soda was expensive before? [Bloomberg]
• Golden couple refuse to shoulder blame – These people. [FT]
• US economic outlook ‘optimistic’ – Just like every football fan feels about their respective team. Right, Sooners? [BBC]
• The Cassandra effect – What if you can predict the future but no one believes you? [AccMan]
• IRS to Focus on Filling Vacancies – Take note people… [Web CPA]

• Obama’s Advice to Aspiring Politicians: Be Careful on Facebook – This is what some parents were worried about? [Bloomberg]
• Accounting firms – Have maintained their reputation? [FT]
• Madoff feeder fund settles with Massachusetts – $8 mil from a $7.2 billion fund? [Reuters]
• Danger! Jobs most likely to kill you – Instantly. Not after a grueling, tortuous 30+ years, thus accountants are not on the list. [NYDN]
• PCAOB Backs FASB Codification – But if you’re ignoring it, that’s fine too. [Web CPA]

• H&R Block will convert 500 company offices to franchises – Sort of a Tax Prep McDonalds? [DBJ]
• IFRS Adoption in the US: One Year Later – No rush. [JDA]
• #48 Free Wi-Fi [Stuff Accountants Like]
• Lamest Accountant Video “Winners” – Shout out from Paul Caron on his blog. Thanks Paul! [TaxProf Blog]
That’s it for us today and we’re off on Monday. Have a great holiday weekend and try not to spend it working.

• Madoff ‘Astonished’ SEC Failed to Act After Interview – And the guy must tell a helluva yarn. [Bloomberg]
• Yahoo accounting chief searching for a new job – This could be you. [Accountancy Age]
• Retailers Show Best Results in a Year – “Still, a quick recovery isn’t expected; half of retailers missed projections.” Dead? Alive? WTFK? [WSJ]
• Triumph of Consumerism – Naming children after your favorite brands. Who needs a drink? [Floyd Norris/NYT]

• Google’s Gmail knocked offline for ‘majority’ of users – Which was the cause of all the Tarantino-esque stand offs yesterday. [NYDN]
• Economy Sheds 298,000 Private-Sector Jobs, ADP Says – Unfortunately, some of you are in that number. [WSJ]
• Geithner Says Too Early to Start Withdrawing Stimulus Measures – Just in case you were worried. [Bloomberg]
• Goodell: NFL Teams Could Face TV Blackouts – For some of you, this is worse than Gmail going down. [NPR]
• The Great Recession – September 19th. NYC. Check it out. [Blackout Film Festival]