The Sunshine Report

Category Archive: FAS 159

1. Mark to Market Accounting Is Still Out Of Control And Is Spreading To Main Street

   4 Post on April 26, 2009

   The account­ing pro­fes­sion still hasn’t got­ten mark to mar­ket account­ing right. The rules and their appli­ca­tion remain a seri­ous dan­ger to the econ­omy and gov­ern­ment inter­ven­tion is needed to save Main Street from being the next vic­tim of fair value account­ing. On April 9, 2009 the most recent changes to mark to mar­ket account­ing were […] [read full story]

   Posted in: CITIGROUP, Economic Statistics, economy, FAS 141R, FAS 157, FAS 159, FASB, Finance, Mark to market accounting, Morgan Stanley, Politics, Public Policy

2. Mark to Market Accounting – It’s Like The Blob; We Need to Kill It Before It Eats Us Alive!

   1 Post on September 27, 2008

   We need to kill mark to mar­ket account­ing before it eats us alive. These account­ing rules are like The Blob, an alien life form that con­sumes every­thing in its path as it grows and grows. Both the Blob and mark to mar­ket account­ing crawl, creep and eat every­thing dead or alive in their path. We […] [read full story]

   Posted in: Accounting, FAS 157, FAS 159, FASB, Finance, Mark to market accounting, The Blob

3. McCain: “Fire Cox”; Sunshine: “McCain’s wrong. Fire Cox and then exile him. His family can stay…they aren’t guilty.”

   1 Post on September 20, 2008

   Almost all paths of incom­pe­tence in the cur­rent cri­sis run through the office of the Chair­man of the SEC, Chris Cox. McCain’s solu­tion to fire Cox isn’t tough enough. Exile is bet­ter. For­tu­nately for Cox this isn’t the Stal­in­ist Soviet Union or his fate could be a lot worse. Cox’s fail­ures are too numer­ous to count. […] [read full story]

   Posted in: Accounting, Chris Cox, Disclosure, economy, FAS 157, FAS 159, FASB, McCain, SEC, Short Selling

4. LUNCHTIME TALK: “IF I LIVE 1,000 YEARS I WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND THAT ACCOUNTING RULE! IT’S DISHONEST!”" rel="bookmark">LUNCHTIME TALK: “IF I LIVE 1,000 YEARS I WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND THAT ACCOUNTING RULE! IT’S DISHONEST!”

   1 Post on August 27, 2008

   Last week I had lunch with Marty Schiff­man who told me that “If I live 1,000 years, I will never under­stand that account­ing rule! It’s dis­hon­est!” Marty was, of course, talk­ing about the appli­ca­tion of mark to mar­ket account­ing rules by major finan­cial insti­tu­tions. Marty Schiff­man is not the “aver­age” man on the street; he […] [read full story]

   Posted in: Accounting, BANKS, Confidence, Credit Crisis, FAS 157, FAS 159, FASB, Regulatory Reform