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 chair of the SEC, how would you measure the costs and benefits of financial disclosures to try to determine the optimal amount and type of disclosure?
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?
Do you think it is possible to devise a comprehensive and uniform way to determine whether pro forma earnings are reasonable, that is, that do not overstep the SEC’s guidelines for reporting non-GAAP earnings? Or, do these cases have to be considered on a case-by-case basis?
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?
In its non-GAAP EPS, Allergan removed “more than half of all operating expenses,” according to the SEC. If the non-GAAP EPS is reconciled to the GAAP EPS, does it matter what or how much they removed? Why or why not?
Given the SEC Chair’s promotion of IFRS, why do you suppose that movement on the issue continues to drag on so slowly?
So VW may accrue another billion as a contingent liability. What is the threshold for balance sheet recognition of contingencies under US GAAP? Under IFRS? Do you believe these future costs have already been reflected into the firm’s stock price? How could you determine if they have?
Can you tell from this description whether the pro forma (adjusted) results for Marvell Technology are “good”?
How would you determine whether financial reporting is “unbalanced”? How would you measure quality financial reporting? Do you think this attribute of financial reporting varies by country?
EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, is apparently being tweaked, to make it “more” (?) non-GAAP. Should investors be concerned? Should investors be using cash based measures that are harder for firms to tweak? Should the government oversee non-GAAP metrics?
What accounting measurement and reporting issues are particularly applicable to firms with fewer fixed assets?
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?
INTEL changed its depreciation estimates, resulting in about $1.5 billion less depreciation. Is this in any way a “red flag?” If so, how?
Why do you think Boeing’s accounting is being “probed” if the accounting complies with GAAP? Have you heard of “program accounting” before this case? Could you explain it? Should firms be investigated if good faith estimates prove to be, in hindsight, inaccurate?
Should the income statement be restructured in the way proposed? What are some of the pros and cons of the proposed new structure? What do you think companies would think of having to change their statements in this way?
Are the banks doing anything “wrong” by releasing loan loss reserves? How would you be able to determine if it was wrong? Who might be hurt by such behavior if it is wrong?
Why do stock prices jump even when a firm (such as Telsa) reports a loss? What role does “expectation” play in stock prices? Do you think the market reacts more to GAAP results or non-GAAP results? If you think the latter, what does this suggest about the relevance of GAAP?
Do you agree that the “relevance of accounting information is decreasing”? Are the new financial metrics to measure firm performance an indicator of market participants’ impatience with the FASB addressing lack of relevance? Will the FASB lose its own relevance?
