More Accounting Changes : Financial Reporting Through the Age of Crisis and Globalization /
Robert Herz.
- 1 online resource (466 pages)
Front Cover -- More Accounting Changes -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Foreword -- More Accounting Changes: Financial Reporting through the Age of Crisis and Globalization -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- 1 My First 49 Years -- Jersey Boy -- Don't Cry for Me Argentina -- Rule Britannia -- The Early Accountant -- Hello Miami, Goodbye Miami (and PW), and Hello Boston (and Coopers & -- Lybrand) -- Return of the Prodigal Son -- The Roaring '80s and Bad Bob -- Poacher Turned Gamekeeper -- Professional Affairs -- A Merger of Equals and "The Dream Team" -- Could You See It Coming? -- Efforts to Improve and Expand Corporate Reporting - The Jenkins Committee, ValueReporting, and the FASB Business Reporting Research Project -- International Bob -- Unforgettable Events and a Fork in the Road -- Some Basics about the FASB -- 2 Charting Course -- Improving Standard Setting -- Can We Make Things Simpler? -- Rationalizing the Structure of U.S. Accounting Standard Setting -- The Accounting Standards Codification -- Improving the Understandability of Standards -- International Convergence -- Setting Course -- 3 Stock Option Controversies - Take Two -- What's the Problem? -- Addressing the Accounting Issues in the Face of Pressure Politics -- 4 International Convergence -- The Urge to Converge and Wherefore IFRS? -- What Does the Law Require? -- Views of Standard Setters on International Convergence -- The Norwalk Agreement -- Short-Term Convergence Projects -- Undertaking Major Joint Projects -- The 2005 SEC Staff "Roadmap" and the 2006 FASB-IASB MoU -- Conceptual Framework -- The SEC Eliminates the Reconciliation Requirement and Explores Potential Adoption of IFRSs in the United States -- Improve and Adopt IFRS -- The SEC Proposes a New "Roadmap" to IFRSs Adoption, and the FASB and IASB Update the MoU -- Mixed Responses to the SEC "Roadmap". Some Begin to Question America's Commitment to Global Accounting Standards -- The G20 Leaders Push for Rapid International Convergence of Accounting Standards -- The FASB and the IASB Respond to the G20 Call by More Than Redoubling the Convergence Effort -- A Necessary Change in Plans -- Waning of the Urge to Converge -- In the Meantime, Back at the SEC -- As the World Turns -- So, Bob, What Do You Really Think about Convergence and IFRSs? -- Nobody Said This Would Be Easy -- Now Where? -- Conclusion -- 5 The Financial Crisis -- Accounting Did Not Cause the Financial Crisis, and Accounting Will Not End It -- Were There Warning Signs? -- The Addiction to Off-Balance Sheet Accounting -- Off-Balance Accounting 101 -- Did They Qualify? -- SIVs, Conduits, and Other VIEs -- The Lehman Repo 105 and 108 Transactions -- Fair Value, Mark-to-Market Accounting, and Impairment of Financial Assets -- Some History -- Then Came the Crisis -- The Year 2008 Draws to a Close -- Into 2009 - Congress Weighs In -- Our Response -- The World Goes On, But It's Not the Same -- Some Lessons Learned -- Measuring Financial Instruments - Amortized Cost versus Fair Value -- Some Arguments for Using Amortized Cost -- Some Arguments for Using Fair Value -- So, Who Is Right? -- Another Alternative -- Continuing Conceptual Challenges -- 6 Complexity -- Does It Need to Be So Complex? -- The Reporting Scandals and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 -- Conceptual Controversy and Complexity -- Asset and Liability View -- Revenue and Expense View -- My Opinion -- An Example -- Back to Concepts -- Theory and Practice -- Suggestions on an Overhaul of the Accounting Framework -- Can We Handle a More Principles-Based System? -- A Call to Action -- CIFiR -- The FASB Simplification Initiative -- Disclosure Overload -- The SEC Undertakes a Disclosure Review Project -- Can Technology Help?. Private Company Reporting -- The Private Company Financial Reporting Committee, IFRS for SME's, and Other Initiatives -- Blue-Ribbon Panel -- FAF Working Group and Increased FASB Focus on Private Companies -- FAF Proposes Establishing a Private Company Standards Improvement Council -- The FAF Establishes the Private Company Council and a New Process for Setting Private Company Accounting Standards -- So Where Are We on Complexity? -- Conclusion -- 7 Looking Back and Moving Forward -- Proud Accomplishments -- Opportunities for Further Improvement -- Some Regrets, Mistakes, and Disappointments -- Changes in Financial Reporting - A Challenging but Necessary Process -- Some Words of Advice to Colleagues and Successors -- Is the United States the Leader in Financial and Corporate Reporting? -- So Now What, Bob? -- Sustainability Reporting and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board -- So What's in It for Companies and Investors? -- Is Less More? -- References -- About the Author -- Index.
This volume, More Accounting Changes, is a revised and updated edition of Herz's earlier work, reflecting: developments in financial reporting; global developments regarding the use of International Financial Reporting Standards; current efforts at disclosure modernization and simplification by the SEC and FASB; and more developments in the field.