Posts Categorized: Financial Statement Analysis

Nothing’s sacred!

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, All Articles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Fraud Accounting, Intermediate Accounting, Managerial Accounting.

Over the past decade, the number of “hospice survivors” in the United States has risen dramatically. According to the Washington Post, this is, in part, because hospice companies earn more by recruiting patients who aren’t actually dying. Healthier patients are more profitable because they require fewer visits and stay enrolled longer. Questions: 1. How large… Read more »

Not a good argument

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, All Articles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Fraud Accounting, IFRS, Intermediate Accounting, International Accounting, Managerial Accounting.

In a ruling on December 23, 2013, the U.S. Tax Court denied a Florida MBA student, with little work experience the claim for deduction of his tuition costs as a business expense. Questions: 1. What was the concentration (major area of study) of the student’s MBA degree? 2. What was the amount of the bill… Read more »

Tax breaks disappearing in 2014

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, All Articles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Intermediate Accounting, Managerial Accounting.

Unless Congress extends the tax deductions that are set to expire at the end of 2013, credits and deductions benefiting everyone from teachers and students to homeowners are scheduled to expire. Questions: 1. Which of these eight deductions will affect you personally? 2. Which of these eight deductions will affect your parents and other family… Read more »

A Christmas Miracle?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, All Articles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Fraud Accounting, IFRS, Intermediate Accounting, International Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Video Updates.

A single father stumbles upon $50K in bonds in a discarded Christmas box and tries to return the money to the owner. Questions: 1. What are bearer bonds? What types of journal entries are associated with them for the issuer? Give examples. 2. What had Mr. Tran done that made these bonds worthless? What do… Read more »

An Epidemic or A Disorder Proliferated by Marketing?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, All Articles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Statement Analysis, Fraud Accounting, Intermediate Accounting, International Accounting, Managerial Accounting.

The sales of prescription stimulants for A.D.H.D. have more than quadrupled since 2002. Is it an epidemic? According to Dr. Keith Conners, a psychologist and professor emeritus at Duke University, who has been fighting to legitimize A.D.H.D diagnoses for the past 50 years, the rise is probably due to successful marketing campaigns that feed on… Read more »

Is it better to look good than have money?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, All Articles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Fraud Accounting, Intermediate Accounting, Managerial Accounting.

Here’s a quirky little story. American money has been consolidated into a single system of currency since the late 1800s. As part of this, U.S. dollars have been printed on a unique cotton blend paper, supplied by only one company (Crane) for more than a century. The chief cotton ingredient has been denim. However, since… Read more »

It Takes Money to Make Money

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, All Articles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Intermediate Accounting, International Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Video Updates.

How much would you like to make per hour at your job or your next job? Legendary investor Warren Buffett makes about $1.54 million per hour (even when he is sleeping)! This article documents the 10 richest investors and entrepreneurs and their wealth gains during 2013. Questions: 1. Who is the wealthiest of those ten… Read more »

Fraud is quicker than the law?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, All Articles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Fraud Accounting, IFRS, Intermediate Accounting, International Accounting, Managerial Accounting.

Without regulation of Bitcoin, consumers have no protection in a Bitcoin economy. The virtual currency continues to result in swindles, with little prospect of a crackdown. Questions: 1. What is a pump-and-dump scheme? 2. What event(s) sent Bitcoin’s price tumbling? 3. In the U.S., the SEC has not ruled that Bitcoin is a security. However,… Read more »

Plain English: It’s all about influence!

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, All Articles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Fraud Accounting, IFRS, Intermediate Accounting, International Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Video Updates.

In June, GSO Capital Partners LP, a unit of the Blackstone Group LP provided a loan to Codere SA, a Spanish gaming operator who owns betting parlors and race tracks in Europe and South America. Interestingly, the terms of the loan provided a guaranteed return on credit default swaps, which outmaneuvered sellers of the protection…. Read more »

A Back Door or Bribery?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, All Articles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Fraud Accounting, IFRS, Intermediate Accounting, International Accounting, Managerial Accounting.

JP Morgan’s “Sons and Daughters” hiring program is under scrutiny by federal regulators. Confidential documents obtained from the company are being explored to shed light on whether the program indicates wrongdoing by the bank to hire children of China’s ruling elite, in order to secure existing and future business from Chinese-government-run companies. Questions: 1. Based… Read more »