Fair Value Accounting Is Worth Being Used

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Auditing financial statements whose items are based on fair values are difficult because these values are often determined using assumptions which are subjective.

Don E. Garner, D. L. (2008). Accounting and the global economy after Sarbanes-Oxley. London: M.E Sharpe.

It was previously assumed that economic investors and regulators (agents) utilised all available information and thus market prices were a reflection of this information with assets representing their fundamental value, encouraging the position that agents’ actions were rational. The 2007-2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) is posited to have originated from the notion that all available information was utilised, causing agents to fail to thoroughly investigate and confirm “the true values of publicly traded securities,” leading to a failure to register the presence of an asset price bubble preceding the GFC (Ball 2009).

In our presentation, we want to discuss how fair value accounting affects society in businesses. One example of how this effected society as a whole was the 2008 financial crisis. In this financial crisis, many companies were impacted but in particular AID insurance company faced a 11 billion dollar write down of debt before FASB introduced their new guidelines of SFAS 157. If this happened after these guidelines were passed, this company would have had a loss more like 900 million dollars. As a result, a company with trillion dollars of assets reported unrealized losses of tens of billions. Another area that was impacted was the American Banking

Fair value is defined as the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date.

There has been much debate over whether FAS 157 sparked the economic crisis or whether big companies, such as financial institutions, only want to use mark to market when it suits them. (Did an Accounting Rule Fuel a Financial Crisis 2008). Critics say fair value can distort market realities, but proponents argue it actually creates transparency by reflecting the up to date reality of an asset or liabilities' worth. (Johnson 2008). Many companies have had to write down assets causing huge losses in their financial statements at a time of economic crisis. Some of these companies blame the fair value measurement on the economic crisis and are lobbying in Washington to change the rule.

Baruch Lev and Feng Gu authors of “The End of Accounting and The Path Forward for Investors and Managers” indicate that over the past 110 years, the structure and content of financial reports has not changed, and that the role that these reports play in influencing the decisions of investors has greatly diminished. Lev and Gu make a case that non-transaction events that are not captured by the financial reports such as those disclosed through 8-k filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) have a greater impact on stock prices, and thus more useful to investors. In addition, they suggest that one of reasons for the decline in usefulness of financial reports stems from the increase of estimates that has made its way into these reports (Lev and Gu 2016).

The research question in this essay is “To what extent have major events from 1980 – 2005 cause an economic bubble, in turn either appreciating or depreciating the American stock Market?”

Historically ,it is seen that there are numerous number of disputes in the field of financial reporting among different professionals, regulators and theoretitions .most of these disputes are related to the valuation of financial reporting components.the current curve in the progress of valuation is the push for and against the fair value approach.the purpose of this research is to examine the arguments on the use of fair value accounting and to identify the issues related to implementation of fair value accounting standards. Further, the results of literature related to role of fair value accounting within financial crisis are also investigated.

However, the ability to identify fundamental value in reality is difficult and therefore the existence of the bubble can only be viewed

Secondly, the investor has a high chance of earning more money in the form of profits as a

ACC307 INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT TASK 1: Contemporary Issues of Accounting Theory Fair Value Measurement Overview After the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) released the IFRS 13 Fair Value Measurement in May 2011 for the purpose of completing its joint project with the US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) on fair value, the Australian Accounting Standard Board (AASB) released the Australian equivalent - AASB 13 Fair Value Measurement in the September of the same year. This standard permitted early adoption but generally started to take effect for the financial reporting periods beginning from 1 January 2013. This new standard requires no new requirement for the adoption and but it was accompanied with the issuing of AASB 2011-8 Amendments to Australian Accounting Standards arising from the AASB 13 which has made consequential changes to 32 standards and 9 interpretations for the adoption in Australia. The new standard attempts to unify IFRS and US GAAP by specifying how entities should apply the fair value measurements that applied in previous IFRS standards. It clarifies and redefines fair value as “the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date”, sometimes referred to as an “exit price”. It also sets out a single source guidance for a robust measurement framework to ensure that the requirements are applied consistently and have clear

An important function of the accounting field is to provide external users of financial statements with assurance that the financial information being presented is both reliable and accurate. This basic function of accounting is so important that there is an entire field of experts, called auditors, dedicated to assuring its proper performance. Throughout history there have been many instances in which the basic equilibrium between an institution and current/potential investor has been threatened due to a lack of accountability and trust between the two parties. This issue has been the catalyst for many discussions regarding the proper procedures a firm should follow in order to provide

Ethical and legal obligations apply to all members of society. As one in society, the obligation to act in an ethical, law abiding manner on a daily basis is vital to the integrity of daily life. Many professions have their own code of ethics. Financial reporting is not exempt from such ethical and legal standards. One’s lively hood depends on decisions made in the business world. Business transactions are done daily and can impact one’s economic stability. Trust is placed in the hands of corporate America and an obligation of financial reporting to reveal a complete honest and legal picture of an entity’s accounting practices is important in attaining trust. This paper will discuss the obligations of