US GAAP x IFRS

O gráfico mostra a distribuição das empresas estrangeiras que atuam no mercado dos Estados Unidos que ainda usam o padrão do FASB. No passado, a SEC permitiu que empresas estrangeiras pudessem usar as normas internacionais de contabilidade do Iasb para divulgar sua contabilidade. Das cerca de mil empresas que possuem ações nos Estados Unidos, um número representativo ainda usam o US GAAP, ou seja, as normas dos Estados Unidos. Não conseguiram libertar do Fasb.

Presidente da SEC

Assim que Mary Schapiro solicitou a saída do cargo de presidente da SEC (a CVM dos Estados Unidos), o presidente Obama anunciou que Elisse B. Walter (foto) para o cargo. Como Elisse já era da SEC, não será preciso ser confirmada pelo Senado, pelo menos até o final de 2013, o que facilita a transição.

O presidente Obama afirmou que

Quando Mary concordou em servir há quase quatro anos ela estava plenamente consciente das dificuldades da SEC e da nossa economia como um todo. Mas ela aceitou o desafio e, hoje, a SEC é mais forte e nosso sistema financeiro é mais seguro e capaz de servir ao povo estadunidense - em grande parte graças ao trabalho duro de Mary.

Em 2008 a presidente nomeada da SEC, Elisse Walter, expressou apoio às normas internacionais de contabilidade, mas ressaltou que o processo seria longo.

Eu acredito fortemente que temos que nos preparar para a alternativa que a Comissão [SEC] poderá não adotar ou permitir o uso das IFRS

Rir é o melhor remédio

Fotos surpreendentes

Schapiro deixa a SEC

Em setembro avisamos aos nossos leitores que Mary Schapiro (foto) estaria deixando a SEC. Ontem a SEC distribuiu um comunicado confirmando o fato. Schapiro destacou que na gestão, que iniciou em janeiro de 2009, no período da crise, a SEC aumentou a fiscalização. Mesmo assim, os críticos afirmam que SEC continua dócil aos fraudadores. Anteriormente, em meados do ano, o contador chefe já tinha se afastado.

Schapiro também deixará o cargo no Comitê de Monitoramento da IFRS.

Para substituir Schapiro dois candidatos tinham sido cogitados. Surgiu outro nome: Sally Krawcheck, presidente do Bank of America.

Em termos da contabilidade, o nome do novo presidente pode ser fundamental para a questão da convergência internacional.

Atriz e Imposto

O ator Charlie Sheen enviou um cheque de US$ 100 mil à sua amiga, a também atriz Lindsay Lohan [foto], para ajudá-la a superar seus problemas com o fisco, informou nesta segunda-feira o site TMZ.

No entanto, na última semana, o representante da atriz recebeu um cheque de US$ 100 mil de Sheen, algo que, segundo o TMZ, deixou a atriz totalmente surpreendida.

Diferente da outra ocasião, Lindsay aceitou a quantia e aproveitou a oportunidade para depositar o dinheiro "imediatamente" em sua conta de impostos pendentes. Segundo o TMZ, a atriz americana deve US$ 233,9 mil correspondentes aos anos de 2009 e 2010.

Fonte: Aqui

Armadilhas comportamentais do Black Friday

Eis algumas armadilhas comportamentais do Black Friday (aliás, das compras):

But among the most potent reasons no sane person should participate in Black Friday is this: It is carefully designed to make you behave like an idiot.

The big problem with Black Friday, from a behavioral economist's perspective, is that every incentive a consumer could possibly have to participate — the promise of "doorbuster" deals on big-ticket items like TVs and computers, the opportunity to get all your holiday shopping done at once — is either largely illusory or outweighed by a disincentive on the other side. It's a nationwide experiment in consumer irrationality, dressed up as a cheerful holiday add-on.

As Dan Ariely explains in his book, Predictably Irrational, "We all make the same types of mistakes over and over, because of the basic wiring of our brains."

This applies to shopping on the other 364 days of the year, too. But on Black Friday, our rational decision-making faculties are at their weakest, just as stores are trying their hardest to maximize your mistakes. Here are just a few of the behavioral traps you might fall into this Friday:

This applies to shopping on the other 364 days of the year, too. But on Black Friday, our rational decision-making faculties are at their weakest, just as stores are trying their hardest to maximize your mistakes. Here are just a few of the behavioral traps you might fall into this Friday:

The doorbuster: The doorbuster is a big-ticket item (typically, a TV or other consumer electronics item) that retailers advertise at an extremely low cost. (At Best Buy this year, it's this $179.99 Toshiba TV.) We call these things "loss-leaders," but rarely are the items actually sold at a loss. More often, they're sold at or slightly above cost in order to get you in the store, where you'll buy more stuff that is priced at normal, high-margin levels. 

[...]Implied scarcity: This is when a store attempts to drum up interest in an item by claiming "limited quantity" or "maximum two per customer," which makes us think we're getting something valuable when we may not be. It's a staple of deceptive marketing, and at no time in the calendar year is it in wider use than on Black Friday. (There is also actual scarcity on Black Friday — when stores carry only a 50 or 100 of an advertised doorbuster item — which also introduces a risk that you'll be 51st or 101th in line and waste your time entirety. Both are bad.)

Confirmation bias: As Derek Thompson points out, many shoppers neglect to factor in the non-cash costs of their Black Friday trip — gas, parking, warranties, and rebates. (To say nothing of the vacation time lost to waiting in lines.) Shoppers want to believe they save money by going out on Black Friday, so they use only their per-item savings in calculating the benefits of their trip. But on a net basis, it's often not a very good deal.

Irrational escalation: This behavioral quirk is also known as the "sunk cost fallacy," and it means that people are bad at knowing when to give up on unprofitable endeavors. This happens a lot on Black Friday. If you've already made the initial, bad investment of getting up at 2 a.m., driving to the mall, finding parking, and waiting in line for a store to open, you'll be inclined to buy more than you initially came for. (Since, after all, you're already there, and what's another few hundred dollars?)

Pain anesthetization: One of my favorite pieces of shopping-related research is a 2007 paper called "Neural Predictors of Purchases" [PDF] which used fMRI scans of shoppers' brains to show how deeply irrational the purchasing process is. Researchers found that if a shopper saw a price that was lower than expected, his medial prefrontal cortex (the part of the brain responsible for decision-making) lit up, while higher-than-expected prices caused the insula (the pain-registering part) to go wild. That brain activity had a strong correlation to whether or not the shoppers ended up buying the products or not.

Economists typically think of consumer choice as dispassionate cost-benefit analysis by rational market actors — a bunch of people saying to themselves, "Will having this $179.99 TV now create more pleasure than having the $179.99 in my bank account to do other things in the future?" — but the 2007 study shows that shoppers don't actually behave that way at all. In fact, they're choosing between immediate pleasure and immediate pain.

[...]The problem, of course, is that those methods of short-term anesthetization often carry long-term consequences — like astronomically high interest rates and hidden fees.

Post-purchase rationalization: When we've bought something expensive, we tend to overlook its flaws or defects in order to justify our decision. On Black Friday, the investment is more than just financial — we've emotionally invested in the post-holiday ritual of standing in line with friends or family and enduring cold, dark misery for the shot at cheap electronics. 

[...]Of course, just by telling you to stay home on Black Friday, I may be triggering your reactance bias (the tendency to do the opposite of what someone tells you) and making you want to go bargain-hunting even more. In which case, good luck. You'll need it.

Idosos japoneses

The number of elderly criminals being caught by Japanese police has rocketed, the Japanese Justice Ministry said yesterday, with pensioners committing almost 50 times more assaults than two decades ago.

The number of criminals aged 65 or older booked by police last year increased by 475 from the previous year to 48,637, more than six times as many as 20 years ago, the ministry said in its latest white paper on crime.

Mais aqui.