Why is Lowe’s able to extend payment terms? How does this help free cash flow? What are the downsides to pushing out payments to suppliers?

If you were CEO of a U.S. firm, would you still try to do a tax inversion? What obstacles would you have to overcome? Or, would you spend more on lobbying to try to get the tax laws changed?

How would you develop a decision rule about whether to do a sale-leaseback? Would you use a time-value component? If so, how would you choose the discount rate?

If you are wanting to IPO your firm, what lessons can you take, if any, from this article about conducting your “road-show?”

Should the statute of limitations for prosecuting fraud be extended from 5 years to 10? Why or why not? What are the downsides to the proposed legislation?

If you are wanting to IPO your firm, how would you choose the state in which to incorporate? Why would Delaware not be as attractive as before? Where would you go, if not there?

Oracle cut the expiration date of its stock option grants from 10 years to 5. Why? What does this do to the value of the options? Why is the value affected in this way?

If you were CFO of a firm with a DB pension plan, why would you switch to mark-to-market pension accounting from the deferred-recognition/smoothing model? What is the benefit? What are the costs?

Do you think it is a good idea for publicly traded firms to stop quarterly reporting and move to a less frequent reporting cycle, such as semi-annual? Why or why not? What are the costs? The benefits?

Are CEOs worth their pay? How would you devise a test to determine an answer to the question? Who will be helped by the new SEC disclosure rule on executive pay? How will they be helped?

Fiat Chrysler was fined around $100 million. How would you determine if the firm accrued the penalty? By looking at the note pertaining to income taxes, how would you determine if any of the amount is tax deductible?

Do you agree with the author that capitalism cannot (or struggles to) create a just society? Do you think accounting measurement and reporting systems play any part in this contention, if true? If so, how?

So the FASB has postponed the effective date by which firms must adopt the new revenue recognition rule. What might this say to you about the cost of the new standard? How would you measure the cost? How would you measure the benefit of the standard?

Apparently a large portion of BP’s settlement for the Gulf Oil spill is tax deductible. In your opinion, should it be tax deductible? Why or why not? Assuming the deduction will be taken in the future, what is the entry to recognize tax expense and the deferred tax asset? What is the effect on the effective tax rate on the nondeductible portion?

Netflix is splitting its stock 7 for 1. What might a hoped for increase in market cap as a result of the split say about the efficiency of the stock market in setting stock prices?

Tech start-ups are using many non-GAAP measures to attract capital. If GAAP measures don’t very well portray new firms’ (and new types of firms’) results and prospects, is the use of non-GAAP measures a “bad thing”? Why or why not?

Why do certain U.S. firms have so much cash on their balance sheets? Do you think this is a “good thing” or not? Why?

Do you think the stock market is smart enough to figure out the results of a firm’s operations (such as earnings) even though the earnings announcements are obfuscated? How would you design a test to see if the markets are smart (efficient) and can figure it out?

Should employees be forced to give back bonuses if their firm’s financial reporting had errors, which allowed the bonuses to be paid? Why or why not? If so, which employees?