Why does the government tend to “go after” companies, rather than individual executives, in alleged fraud cases? What are the consequences of this strategy for mitigating future fraud attempts?
Maryland’s public pension plan expected returns of 7.75% but realized actual returns of only 0.36% for the most recent fiscal year. What are the consequences of the variance between expected and actual returns? Is this a “one-off” year, or a longer trend? If the latter, what would you propose to do about the situation? What are the consequences of your proposal?
Best Buy has become, according to some, a showroom for cybershoppers. How would taking the company private help the company implement the necessary changes?
Does the IFRS approach in measuring impairment put BP at a “disadvantage” relative to Exxon? If so, how? Would BP be able to reverse the impairment? If Exxon had an impairment, would it be able to reverse it? Exactly what is the “time value” component of the analysis these days?
Why do some analysts want the current lease accounting rules to remain unchanged? Should the FASB and IASB listen to these user groups and abandon the effort to bring leases on-balance-sheet?
Why do you suppose that analysts ignore Facebook’s GAAP-based earnings (which most recently was a net loss) and instead focus on pro forma earnings, or earnings before stock based compensation expense?
In your opinion, who will ultimately be proved right in the current debate: French President Hollande or the CEO of Peugeot? How would you decide among a dividend, share repurchase, or keeping workers on the line? What are the multiple factors to consider?
Why do you suppose that firms in Spain and Italy have significantly “worse” working capital management compared to firms in Germany and Scandinavia? Or, do you think that the working capital practices are not necessarily “worse,” but rather just “different”? Do the differences matter? How?
If Apple repatriates the foreign earnings, who are the “winners” and who are the “losers”? If you were the CEO or CFO of Apple, to whom would you have the fiduciary responsibility? Would you repatriate the profit and pay the tax, or leave it overseas?
The EU is aggressively pursuing Google as a monopolist. At what point would Google supposedly book a contingent liability? Will the markets react at that point, or will they have already reacted?
How or why does it matter, if it does at all, that capital leases result in front-loading expenses for lessees? Explain how the front-loading occurs.
Hoogervorst is exasperated at the latest delay in the efforts to converge accounting for financial instruments with the FASB. Is his exasperation justified in your opinion? Or, is the delay justified because it shows Seidman wanting to incorporate constituents’ concerns over a difficult accounting issue? Does this particular “spat” affect your opinion about convergence in general?
Are corporations people? Is the “human asset” recognized as an asset on the balance sheet? Should it be? If so, how would you measure its value?
How would making the CFO report directly to the board’s audit committee (rather than to the CEO) improve corporate governance? How would it hurt? Should the idea be pursued or not?
Microstrategy may have been the first of the dot.com bubbles to pop when the accounting controversy became public in 2000. The CEO (Saylor) lost over $6 billion that day. Now Microstrategy is back. Most firms after such controversies and SEC investigations don’t seem to recover. Why do you think Saylor has been able to do so?
Why are firms hoarding cash? If you were CFO, would you be doing the same? What would be factors in your decision?
These 10 brands predicted to disappear in 2013 should have leading indicators of this happening in their financial statements. What would be examples of these indicators?
