Do you agree with the FASB’s reasoning to drop separate lender accounting for troubled debt restructurings?
Do you think the change in lessor accounting was to fix an “oversight” in the standard? Or, was the FASB bowing to pressure?
Are you concerned that operating income (EBIT) could be misleading? Should the FASB try to standardize operating income?
Do you believe that the FASB should be forced to change the accounting for human capital? Why or why not?
Should the FASB required by law to study and report on the expected impact on the economy of new accounting standards? Why or why not? What was the reason for this proposed legislation?
Do you believe the new revenue recognition standard will meet Mr. Golden’s objective of giving investors “better information”? Why or why not?
If you were an equity research analyst, how would disaggregating pension cost (expense) benefit your analysis? Specifically, how does isolating service cost in operating income and disaggregating the other components (interest, expected return, amortizations) make your analysis better/easier?
If you were tasked with writing an accounting standard to answer the questions about digital currency, what would you do? How would you begin? What do you think your conclusion would be? Is it cash? Investment? Inventory? Intangible? Would you use fair value accounting?
So the FASB changed the amortization period for callable debt investments that are purchased at a premium. Now the premium is amortized up to the call date, rather than up to the maturity date of the debt investment. What criteria do you think were used to determined that this was an issue that needed to be addressed?
Facebook had an accounting change that resulted in a $900 million boost to earnings. The FASB now requires “excess tax benefits” from stock options to flow through the income statement, rather than APIC. Does the change improve financial reporting? How?
Given the SEC Chair’s promotion of IFRS, why do you suppose that movement on the issue continues to drag on so slowly?
The SEC wants to eliminate duplicative disclosures found elsewhere in the financial statements. How did the disclosure system get to the point where certain disclosures are required in two different places. What are some implications of eliminating duplicate disclosures? Who benefits from the proposed change? Who might lose?
Do you think it is reasonable to require such “crystal-ball” foresight re: loan losses? Why was there such a push to require early recognition? Will it help? Whom? How?
