Author Archives: Neil

Global ethics and international accounting standards

The Publish What You Pay campaign is where international politics, financial reporting, and the developing world intersect. The campaign seeks to force companies in extractive industries (such as oil and gas) to make public their payments to governments in the developing world. It began in 1999 with an “exposé of the apparent complicity of theContinue reading “Global ethics and international accounting standards”

Why the estate tax is a good thing

You can count on only two things in life – death and taxes. Actually, more like two and a half things, because there is also taxes upon death. The estate tax raises revenue by taxing the wealth people leave behind when they die. That’s a good thing. If we could, I would suggest only taxingContinue reading “Why the estate tax is a good thing”

Chuck Norris audit jokes

Sometimes when you search Technorati blog posts for the term “auditor” you get some interesting results. Highlights from a post on a MySpace blog by a guy who worked on the Enron audit with Arthur Andersen simply titled “Chuck Norris – Auditor“: Chuck Norris does not accrue for expenses. He accrues for pain. Chuck NorrisContinue reading “Chuck Norris audit jokes”

Loading springs and dodging bullets

Two terms, “spring-loading” and “bullet-dodging” have reminded me of the tendency in business to put a positive spin on negative practices. Spring-loading refers to the practice of granting options immediately before releasing good news that will likely increase the stock price, resulting in options that are not in the money technically when granted, but are,Continue reading “Loading springs and dodging bullets”