In a November 15 letter to the SEC, FAF chairman John J. Brennan wrote that reducing FASB’s role in setting U.S. financial reporting standards “may weaken the positive leverage that U.S. GAAP and U.S. standard setting have provided to improving accounting standards for investors in the world’s most robust and transparent capital markets.” The FAF also disputed the SEC staff’s proposed goal of achieving one set of global accounting standards. Instead, the organization feels that “a more practical goal for the foreseeable future is to achieve highly comparable (but not necessarily identical) financial reporting standards among the most developed capital markets that are based on a common set of international standards.” [CFO]
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An Accountant’s Labor Day Weekend Reading | 09.03.10
~ Calling it a day people. We’ll be back Tuesday to help you cope with the post-holiday depression.
Why the SEC Won’t Flip the IFRS Switch [CFO]
We approve of prognostication in all its forms.
Bernanke Says He Failed to See Financial Flaws [NYT]
About as close to a “my o get from the Beard.
Montvale: Police Blotter, Sept. 2 [NorthJersey.com]
More car trouble associated with KPMG. This time it was a stolen Beamer. With an iPod inside!
Who is short selling Medifast stock? [Fraud Files Blog]
A show of hands, please.
H&R Block Surges as Chief Says Firm Can Handle Mortgage Refunds [Bloomberg]
“Concern about potential losses tied to buybacks of home loans ‘is not based on fact,’ and reserves to protect the company against claims ‘are adequate,’ Chief Executive Officer Alan Bennett said yesterday during a conference call about fiscal first-quarter earnings. The call included repeated queries about claims, which have totaled more than $680 million.
‘There’s nothing that we’re seeing anywhere that would lead to the kind of phone calls we just listened to other than speculators that, in my mind, have probably sold our stock short and then stirred this up,’ Bennett said in an interview after the call. Mortgage buyback claims ‘are getting better,’ he said.”
The Truth About SAS 70 [CFO]
They’re worthless. Well, not completely.
I.R.S. Looks at Finances of Planned Parenthood [NYT]
“The criminal division of the Internal Revenue Service is looking into the finances of Planned Parenthood Golden Gate, while the organization has brought in forensic accountants to evaluate its books.
The local nonprofit became Golden Gate Community Health on Friday, as the national Planned Parenthood organization stripped the Bay Area clinics of their affiliation, citing financial and administrative problems.”
Paul Hogan cleared to return to U.S. [CBC]
Mick is safe.
Peter Orszag Goes From the Obama White House to the New York Times [Daily Intel]
“Apparently, what that Times opinion section needs is another liberal-leaning economist to cheerlead for progressive economic policies from the White House — or one who provides another visible tie between the two institutions.”
Under the hood [NYP]
Tim Geithner gets the giggles and might have Tourette’s; Larry Summers called the shots on GM/Chrysler fiasco and NEWSFLASH: Rahm Emanuel says “fuck” a lot.
Dave & Buster’s, Inc. Appoints KPMG LLP as Independent Auditor [Business Wire]
D&B didn’t waste any time announcing their new auditors. As of now, there is no filing.
And Here You Probably Thought Americans for Tax Reform Just Lobbied Against Taxes
The Hill reports that tax unfriend Grover Norquist and his merry band of scamps at […]
You Don’t Want to Imagine the World Without Sarbanes-Oxley, Says Michael Oxley
We really don’t foresee any scenario where a politician would denounce a piece of legislation with his/her name on it but since the MSM has the tendency to bludgeon the Enron/Andersen/Sarbanes-Oxley mantra into everyone’s gray matter, Ox figured he’d better get on record saying that SOx might be the most important moment in U.S. history since the Louisiana Purchase.
When asked if pols can ever stop corporate malfeasance, Ox more or less, compared it to Law & Order, “We have laws against homicide and people kill one another every day. That doesn’t mean that you back off and stop fighting.”
When asked if SOx was a success, we expected a resound, “You bet your ass it’s a success!” but he was a slightly more reserved saying that you should only imagine a world without SOx if you want to scare the bejeezus out yourself:
Sarbanes-Oxley was all about accountability and transparency and restoring investor confidence. We lost almost $8 trillion in market capitalization in 2001 and 2002 because of fraud at places like Enron and Worldcom.
Even though the recent meltdown has hurt confidence again, things could have been much worse if accounting regulations had been as lax as financial regulations.
There’s the magic E word! Maybe we should try focusing on the Tonys as opposed to being so negative when it comes to Enron?
So what about this financial regulatory reform, is this a drag or what?
Critics and the financial press said that Sarbanes-Oxley was rushed through, even though it actually took eight months from the time of the first hearing on Enron until the passage of the bill.
Now, more than a year since the financial crisis, Congress hasn’t dealt with regulation and people are criticizing politicians for moving too slowly. But by taking more time Congress has had a chance to delve into complicated and multi-faceted issues like too-big-to-fail, over-the-counter derivatives, and bank regulations. This is heavy lifting and I give the Congress a lot of credit for working hard to put something together.
Do you think Congress would work on something for eight whole months and it would end up being a failure? If elected representatives work on something for that long it’s bound to be an unmitigated success.
Is Sarbanes-Oxley a failure? [Fortune]