Footnotes: Pass the Fried Chicken; NQ Mobile Has a Good Day; PCAOB Mulling Over New Audit Standard | 06.04.14

Posted on June 4, 2014 by Adrienne Gonzalez

Billy Walters: No wrongdoing with Phil Mickelson, Icahn "I can tell you one thing, there ain't going to be anything to come out of this other than someone spending a lot of time and a lot of money," Walters told USA TODAY Sports. "Because I certainly haven't violated any insider trading laws. [USA Today]

U.S. Organizations Falling Behind in Fight Against Cyber Crime, Study Says PwC is thrilled their report is making the rounds [TIME]

The city of Chattanooga is hoping fifth time will be a charm on its streetlight audit [CTFP]

Some tips on being more assertive in order to be a better communicator Hint: assertive and asshole are not interchangeable [Lifehacker]

For the report wonks out there, Thomsen Reuters just dropped "An Overview of the Revised Accounting Model for Revenue Recognition" [TR]

Taxpayers in Dallas must really, really like fried chicken [Dallas Morning News]

Taking a Chance on a Health Insurance Strategy the I.R.S. May Not Approve [NYT]

NQ Mobile Jumps as Company Investigation Finds No Fraud [Bloomberg]

PCAOB to Consider Adopting an Auditing Standard on Related Parties, Amendments Regarding Significant Unusual Transactions, and Other Amendments [PCAOB]

This right here is why you shouldn't run around the zoo in a gorilla suit [Gawker]

Uncategorized

Bob Herz is the Most Dangerous Man in America

Caleb Newquist
August 7, 2009

bob herz.jpg According to Reuters columnist, James Pethokoukis, that is. JP argues that the FASB’s most recent attempt to go balls to the wall with mark-to-market will endanger the economy:
“What if an upgraded mark-to-market standard forced slowly healing banks to set aside huge sums to cover paper losses and further crimp lending? Not FASB’s problem.” He also argues that the FASB is motivated by the ideology around transparency as opposed to “practicality and experience”.
The problem, as we see it, with this argument is that JP sees mark-to-market as an inconvenient rule considering the circumstances that the economy is under. That very well may be but we would ask, what the hell is the alternative? “Massaging” the rules every so often, as he puts it? So making the rules less principled when they are inconvenient is the solution? Accounting rules are not written so that we can change them when they don’t work in our favor.
Make no mistake, we’re not crazy about the current system as it exists. GAAP continues to look more and more like the U.S. Tax Code, so the FASB’s sloth-like attempt to develop a “principles system” is ~~promising~~ ~~encouraging~~ something. Mark-to-market is the best reflection of that something. The idea that tweaking of the rules under duress is an acceptable form of determining the direction of financial reporting is what drives accountants f’n berserk.
America’s Most Dangerous Man? An Accountant [James Pethokoukis/Reuters]