The housing bust is not over and trends continue to be negative.  The only positive activity is that homebuilding stocks have gone up, without a good reason.  We still have a ways to go to work through all this.

Not capitalizing interest in inventory causes acceleration of losses and deterioration of book value.

How can an SEC Commissioner who is obviously not familiar with Fair Value estimates call for changing the existing guidance? The value of something is zero if that is what you can buy and sell it for.    

Recently, stock prices of most public homebuilders have increased 20-30 percent.  This despite no visible signs of improvement in the overall housing industry.  It seems early in the cycle for these stock price upward movements, as it appears the housing market has not yet found bottom.  Equity buyers at the present stock prices must be patient and have a mid- to long-term perspective...

Homebuilders have recorded large inventory impairments over the last couple of years.  Most of these impairments have been for land and lots.  As these previously impaired lots are built on and a completed home is delivered, the land component as a percentage of Cost of Goods Sold may decline significantly.

As long as the F.A.S.B.'s blueprint could "identify the least disruptive, and least costly approach" to move U.S. public companies to IFRS, and this blueprint is generally accepted in the U.S. as accounting principals, the U.S. GAAP is applied. However, applying these standards by other countries and nations already requiring international accounting standards IAS would be a problem.

The title of the article is a misnomer - it is the FASB not GAAP that is being replaced.  With little debate or scrutiny, and no cost/benefit analysis of which I'm aware, the SEC has decided to replace United States GAAP with that of an international body over which it has no control. Accounting is the basis of business decisions and to outsource that authority is frightening to say the least....

1.  Given  all of the differences between US GAAP and IFRS it will be a few more years before convergance occurs. 2.  There is a lack of conformity with respect to adherance to IFRS as it has been promulgated into law.  As such, it is difficult to review a financial statement completed under IFRS unless you know the underlying accounting policies promulgated by a specific governmental...

1. Souvereign funds based on the undue accumulation of unproductive foreign reserves can only exist in a mercantilist system of fixed or pegged exchange rates. 2. By moving towards a complete floating exchange rate system, foreign reserve accumulations will be driven to zero and, ergo, also the souvereign funds. 3. So, instead of regulating souveraeign funds, create free-working futures...

It's just astonishing how much junk you can find lying around your bank, especially if you've been collecting things for as long as Citigroup has. Selling $500b in non core assets. Which will help in the short term what about the long term? have we learned nothing from Chainsaw Al (Sunbeam)? Pandit, fire sale well help the top line but what about the bottom line?  And if it gets too difficult,...