My friend Walter Ross recently submitted a comment on my public interest-themed posts and I’m going to post it here to make sure it’s appropriately visible (to the extent that being on this blog is a form of visibility): ..your recent columns on the “public interest” – a malleable concept as you note – have…

The five commissioners of the US Securities and Exchange Commission recently voted on the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s proposed budget for 2025. The proposed budget was around $400 million, a 4% increase from 2024, with no increase in headcount, and was approved by a 3 to 2 vote. As is their way, each of…

A recent financial reporting oddity from Zimbabwe… The company in question is WestProp Holdings Limited, an entity “on a mission to create a brighter future for Zimbabwe by developing properties in our lifestyle communities where people can live, work, shop and play.” As far as I could tell, the company hasn’t made (and presumably isn’t…

Block Journal (among various other sources) recently published the following: The number of US companies forced to withdraw financial statements because of accounting errors has surged to a nine-year high, raising questions about why mistakes are going unnoticed by auditors. In the first 10 months of this year, 140 public companies told investors that previous…

Few people would have been surprised that the US Securities and Exchange Commission is backing away from its previously-passed (but now never to be implemented) climate disclosure rules… …but recent events must raise questions about what else lies ahead for the organization. Recent reporting by The Economic Times sets out some initial Trump-era developments: The…

I recently mused here on the often-cited concept of the “public interest”… I say “recently” because it wasn’t even two weeks ago, but the post already almost seems like a missive from a simpler and more naïve age, given Trump’s rampaging destructiveness since then. The following is from a Globe and Mail column by Adrienne…

Let’s return to IFRS 18, Presentation and Disclosure in Financial Statements… We already looked at an entity’s assessment of its “main business activities,” relevant to determining whether certain expenses which would otherwise be classified as investing or financing activities should rather be viewed as operating activities. More broadly, the operating category of expenses includes all…

This is from the page on CPA Canada’s website titled “Advocacy: In support of the public interest”: We ensure Canada’s accounting profession optimally serves the public interest by providing high-quality professional development and extensive guidance to members, contributing to accounting standard setting in Canada and worldwide, and advocating for the profession and the public on…

As we addressed here, the IASB has issued Provisions – Targeted Improvements, an exposure draft of proposed amendments to IAS 37. You’ll recall that a provision is “a liability of uncertain timing or amount” and under IAS 37 in its current form is recognized when an entity has a present obligation (legal or constructive) as…

It’s telling that two of Canada’s major newspapers published very similar opinion pieces  within a couple of days of each other.… This is from the piece headlined Canada must stand firm on DEI as U.S. corporations retreat, written by Wes Hall and Walied Soliman, published in the Globe and Mail: In 2024, some of the…