In assessing Citi’s results, would you include or exclude the reserves release and the debt valuation adjustment? Why or why not?
If you are the CEO of a company, would you want your audit firm rotated every four years? If you are a board member, would you want the audit firm rotated every four years? How about if you were an investor? If you were the auditor?
Pension contributions in 2012 for the S&P 500 will need to be around $90 billion. If you are the CEO of a company without sufficient cash flow to make the funding contribution, what are your options? Which would you choose, and why?
Why has the private sector moved away from Defined Benefit Plans, whereas the public sector is just recently waking up to the issue of extreme funding gaps? What role may “accountability” play in the difference between private and public sectors?
If you are the CEO of a publicly traded company, is it important to you to woo investors to buy your firm’s stock? Why exactly? Will increasing your dividend necessarily do this?
At what point should Exxon write-off the oil rigs and other assets “nationalized” by the Venezuelan government? What disclosures, if any, should Exxon have made to alert you to the risk of nationalization of its assets there? Where would you look to see if such disclosures were made?
Are Deferred Tax Assets (DTAs) discretionary accounting items? What is the threshold for a write-down? Who decides if the threshold is met? What are possible incentives that could affect the judgment about whether the threshold is met?
Most firms with Defined Benefit pensions choose to measure pension expense with expected, rather than actual, returns on their pension plan assets. This reduces volatility of income, since actual returns (market value changes), can greatly fluctuate. Actual returns, however, are disclosed. So, who cares (and why do they) if firms switch to using actual returns in measuring pension expense?
Should the corporate tax deduction for stock options be eliminated? How would the elimination of the deduction result in double taxation of options? How do you think corporations would respond if the deduction were eliminated?
If universally adopted financial standards is the goal, why not have other countries adopt U.S. GAAP? Why is the burden placed upon the U.S. to adopt IFRS? Is IFRS really “better”? How so, and who says?
Why would Zynga want to price its IPO conservatively? How would you know whether or not they actually did price it conservatively?
Assume that you are the CEO of a firm whose total return to shareholders fell in 2011. How do you respond to criticisms of your compensation?
Do you believe the European banks are intentionally delaying write-downs of goodwill? If so, why? If any delay were to go against IFRS, who should enforce the standards?
Assuming the goal of a single (universal) accounting language is a goal worthy of pursuit, in your opinion, how should it be done? What are the possible unintended consequences of your implementation plan?
Do you believe that the location of lease disclosures (on-balance-sheet versus off-balance-sheet) and the timing of the effects on income will result in the loss of 60,000 jobs? Why or why not?
Do you believe that the decrease in the frequency of restatements can be directly attributable to Sarbanes Oxley? Can you think of any other factors?
What exactly is the problem with credit raters from S&P, Moody’s, and Fitch leaving and going to work for firms whose debt they rated? Assuming the problem warrants a change, what do you propose?
Can you name a few of the major, recent contributing factors to the $440 billiion under funded status of defined benefit pension plans?
