Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
October 3, 2023

Footnotes: Oy, Derivative Accounting; Should Auditors Ditch Independence?; Our Rich Saviors | 12.06.12

Scrutiny at the Gate: Firms' Role Questioned [WSJ]

Deutsche Bank Ignored Some “Losses” Until They Went Away [S]ome things live in a level-3 world where there are no specific rules and no obvious markets and you rely on good faith and estimates and conversations with your auditors. Tailored credit derivatives where Deutsche Bank was “65 per cent of all leveraged super senior trades” clearly fall in that bucket, so they talked to their auditors and the auditors signed off on what they did and, that’s kind of the end. Was the model (or series of ad-hoc models and reserves and absences-of-models) blessed by the auditors worse than Ben-Artzi’s? Sure! But so what? The model blessed by the auditors for loans – “hold them at historical cost” – is clearly worse than a market-based model, in the sense of “less reflective of the expected probability distribution of future cash flows.” And loans are the bulk of most banks’ assets. Accounting isn’t supposed to be a correct representation of your most likely future cash flows. It’s just accounting. [DB]

Grover Norquist’s Dirty Little Secret [Bloomberg]

Standard Chartered to Pay $330 Million to Settle Iran Money Transfer Claims [DealBook]

IRS Warns Congress About Failure to Address Alternate Tax [BBW]

HP – Autonomy: How Might the Auditors Survive the Fall-Out? Audit performance – and more immediately, the survival of the large firms to serve their global clients and the capital markets – would be better achieved if the current independence requirements and constraints were scrapped altogether. [Re:Balance]

Why Breaking Up H.P. Makes Sense [DealBook]

The Rich Will Pay for Our Sins Everyone knows that taxing the very rich will have no perceptible effect on the deficit. It's all for show. The president and Democrats in Congress can say they stuck it to the millionaires and billionaires. Fairness will abound. The Republicans can tell the world that they are reasonable people willing to compromise on issues as important as taxes. But Americans will still get more government than they are willing to pay for. [David Brunori]
 
Former Summer Associate Busted For Lying About Disability To Get Extra Time On The Bar Exam CPA candidates, please resist the urge. [ATL]

Cops: Patron Attacked McDonald's Worker Over Unwanted Cheese On His Hamburger [TSG]

Latest Accounting Jobs--Apply Now:

Have something to add to this story? Give us a shout by email, Twitter, or text/call the tipline at 202-505-8885. As always, all tips are anonymous.

Related articles

white alarm clock next to white coffee cup

Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: Blaming PwC’s Bro Culture; How Do We Do Office Professional Now? | 10.2.23

Hey, welcome to October. You have my permission to start putting up those Halloween decorations now. Let’s get right to it! The news, I mean. Here’s something for anyone who needs it (you know who you are): Back in the office? Here’s how to be professional in the workplace Bloomberg explains the PwC Australia tax […]

Funny white cat-an athlete in a yellow sports headband, lying with yellow footballs, dumbbells and a yellow alarm clock standing nearby.

Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: PwC Is Turning Work Down?; TIL the President of Nigeria Worked at Deloitte | 9.11.23

Yay it’s Monday again! Praise Pacioli, there’s actually some stuff going on this morning. Meet a 29-year-old accountant whose ‘resentment’ only climbed after her firm raised her salary from $60k to $90k as she made millions for them. She has her own firm now: Stephanie Heredia’s promotion came a year too late and more than […]