A recent New York Times article by David Gelles explored “How Environmentally Conscious Investing Became a Target of Conservatives.” Here are some extracts: You know what else is a direct assault on the heart and soul of any economy? Irreversible environmental degradation and an unsustainable society, that’s what! The article has plenty more, with our…

Here’s the background to another issue recently discussed by CPA Canada’s IFRS Discussion Group The group discussed factors to consider when assessing whether crypto assets held by the Platform on behalf of others should be recognized in the Platform’s statement of financial position, something that (in common with everything crypto-related!) isn’t addressed directly in the…

Here’s a portion of a recent IASB news release: The document sets out that to enable entities to make effective materiality judgements, the IASB, when drafting disclosure requirements, will typically: The IASB describes this as a “middle-ground” approach in that it’s more prescriptive than what it originally proposed, responding to the widespread skepticism described in…

A section of the ifrs.org website monitors the application of IFRS across the world, based on profiles for 167 jurisdictions. That’s not the whole world though, and you might well have asked – what about Ethiopia (well, you might have)? It’s not included among the 167, and barely mentioned anywhere on the website; there’s just the following…

The volume of commentary on ESG-related matters seems to grow by the day… An article by Barbara Shecter in Canada’s Financial Post considered whether pension funds have a legal obligation to consider climate change when investing. Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), an international group backed by some of Canada’s largest pension funds, thinks so: The…

How Can We Make Accounting Cool? asked a recent Wall Street Journal article It’s written by Joe Queenan. Here are some extracts: Unfortunately, albeit understandably, Queenan’s diagnosis of the problem is much more convincing than that of the solution. The suggestions that films like Ben Affleck’s The Accountant “certainly help,” or that much would be…

Here’s an extract from the January 2023 IASB Update: The exemption referred to in the second item refers back to the September 2022 meeting, at which the IASB tentatively decided to propose an exemption in specific circumstances that would permit an entity not to disclose information about management’s objectives for a business combination; the metrics…

I’ve owned several Sonos speakers for a few years… …but I’m not any kind of Sonos stakeholder beyond that. I receive a regular stream of promotional emails from them, most of which contain little to grab the attention, but I did stop at a recent one announcing its “Listen Better Report 2022,” with the capsule…

Here’s the background to another issue recently discussed by CPA Canada’s IFRS Discussion Group: The group discussed a few issues relating to whether ESG features affect the issuer’s accounting for such green bonds measured at amortized cost, including whether those features should be separated and accounted for as derivatives. Recall that the definition of a…

Conrad Black’s one-time globe-spanning profile has faded in recent years… His Canadian visibility now is mostly confined to his regular opinion column in the National Post, notable for its style-challenged unreadability and for its barely qualified assessment of Donald Trump as a great American President (“ Is there any sane person who in the dark and…