Mudança na frequência das Demonstrações Contábeis

Há discussões nos EUA pelo fim da divulgação trimestral de demonstrações contábeis:


The United States is in the middle of that rarest of events: a public conversation on accounting standards. Since 1970, public companies in the US have been required to report quarterly. The Securities and Exchange Commission is now considering changing that frequency to biannual reporting, and in December 2018 issued a request for public comment on the matter.

Admittedly, the issue isn’t exactly igniting the passions of the masses, but the implications of these discussions could significantly affect the US economy. For the first time in many years, policy makers are seriously reconsidering the rules on corporate financial reporting. The SEC is examining how to change the system to lighten the burdens on corporations, and to reduce what it calls the “overly short-term focus by managers” of listed companies.

My research suggests there would be great benefits to the US ending mandatory quarterly reporting. It would help to kick-start innovation among US companies, for one. That should be of particular interest to the SEC, which stated in its request that it is interested in how the current system “may affect corporate decision making and strategic thinking.”

The SEC’s study follows comments from President Donald Trump last year that US companies should be required to report only every six months rather than quarterly. Some would like to go further: moving from quarterly to annual reports would lead executives to focus more on the long run, according to about one-third of prominent economists polled by Chicago Booth’s Initiative on Global Markets. (See “Should companies report annually instead of quarterly?” Published online, February 2019.)

Lessening the frequency of reporting would certainly be popular with corporations. As Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, and Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, observed in an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal last year, “quarterly earnings guidance often leads to an unhealthy focus on short-term profits at the expense of long-term strategy, growth and sustainability.”

[...]

But because the markets have such a quarter-to-quarter focus, more market discipline is only one side of the coin. In economic terms, market discipline ensures price efficiency (prices consistent with risk). However, there is a catch: such price efficiency may come at the cost of economic efficiency (increasing the size of the pie).

The really important cost of quarterly reporting is that companies underinvest in innovation, reducing economic efficiency. If we force companies to disclose frequently, they worry about their next earnings numbers. And if they miss expectations, they’re punished by the market.

[...]

Less-frequent reporting would also give companies less of an incentive to go private and more of an incentive to go public. This would enable them to share risk with a broader pool of investors, and not just with big institutions and hedge funds.

Changing the frequency of reporting also provides the opportunity to ask whether one size should fit all. The SEC wisely suggests that companies could be given flexibility over the frequency of their reporting. We have an opportunity to run a grand experiment in accounting. Some companies could continue to report quarterly, some could move to biannual reporting, and others to alternative time periods, such as every four months. This would enable us to truly measure the costs and benefits.

Semiannual reporting might not help big established companies, but it could help the most innovative companies in our economy by encouraging them to allocate more capital to risky, innovative projects. This could provide a big boost for the long-term health of the US economy.

Fonte: aqui

Big Four ameaçadas na Índia

Global auditors have had a torrid time of late. kpmg is haemorrhaging clients in South Africa after allegations of fraud linked to its work for the powerful Gupta family; Deloitte is under investigation in both America and Malaysia relating to scandal at 1mdb, a Malaysian state-development fund. In Britain the Big Four face threats of break-up after the failure last year of Carillion, a big government contractor for which all four had done work. Now Indian prosecutors have the auditors in their sights.

The most serious case concerns the collapse last year of il fs, a monstrously complex financial firm with deep state ties. On July 15th the corporate-affairs ministry will argue before a commercial court to have Deloitte’s and kpmg’s local affiliates suspended from doing audits for five years because of flaws in their work for an il fs subsidiary. Ernst Young (ey) is under fire, too: its local affiliate audited il fs and another subsidiary. It had already been suspended for a year from doing bank audits because of its work for Yes Bank, India’s fourth-biggest private lender. pwc, meanwhile, faces a two-year suspension relating to work for Satyam, a computer-services firm that went bust a decade ago.

Continue lendo aqui

Economia de custo

Um relatório do Departamento de Justiça dos Estados Unidos sobre o acidente com o Boeing mostrou um dado interessante, relacionado com a economia de custo: a Boeing terceirizou o desenvolvimento do software do 737 Max e usou trabalhadores temporários para testá-los. Mais ainda, segundo a Bloomberg (via aqui), alguns destes trabalhadores eram recem formados ou trabalhadores contratados de empresas indianas. O motivo era a redução de custo.

Some of the testers and developers made as little as $9, the longtime engineers told Bloomberg. Former Boeing flight controls engineer Rick Ludtke said the move to outsource was centered on cost-cutting.

"Boeing was doing all kinds of things, everything you can imagine, to reduce cost, including moving work from Puget Sound, because we'd become very expensive here," Ludtke told Bloomberg. "All that's very understandable if you think of it from a business perspective. Slowly over time it appears that's eroded the ability for Puget Sound designers to design."

Faulty software on the Boeing 737 Max has seemingly contributed to two fatal crashes, which killed 346 people between October and March. The 737 Max was grounded around the world after the March crash, leading Boeing to a first-quarter loss of $1 billion.

Rir é o melhor remédio

Dewey

O que acontece quando a pessoa mais "importante" da sua área é um racista, antissemita e com acusações de assédio sexual? Algo como Pacioli de uma profissão ter estas acusações.

Melvil Dewey nasceu em 1851 e faleceu em 1931. Em 1876 publicou Classification and Subject Index for Cataloguing and Arranging the Books and Pamphlets of a Library e foi responsável pela criação da classificação Dewey de obras bibliográficas.

Na semana passada, a Associação dos Bibliotecários dos Estados Unidos passou uma resolução retirando o nome de Dewey da maior honraria profissional, a Melvil Dewey Medal:

The resolution explains that Dewey did not permit Jewish people, African Americans or other minorities admittance to the resort he owned, the Lake Placid Club. He also “made numerous inappropriate physical advances toward women he worked with and wielded professional power over” and was ostracised from the ALA after four women accused him of sexual impropriety, the resolution continues, declaring that “the behaviour demonstrated for decades by Dewey does not represent the stated fundamental values of ALA in equity, diversity, and inclusion”.

Rir é o melhor remédio

Eu não preciso do Google. Minha espora sabe tudo.

Julgamento de Holmes

O escândalo da empresa Theranos parece que tem uma data para seu julgamento. Esta empresa, criada por Elizabeth Holmes, propunha uma revolução nos exames médicos. Posteriormente revelou-se que a solução tecnológica era uma farsa. Recentemente um documentário mostrou a saga da fraude: The Inventor.

Agora Elizabeth Holmes já tem uma data para seu julgamento: verão de 2020. Serão nove acusações de fraude eletrônica e duas de conspiração para cometer fraudes. Isto inclui fraudar investidores e médicos/pacientes. Em julho será a seleção do juri e abre-se o julgamento em agosto de 2020. A defesa tentou postergar; a acusação começou em junho de 2018.

Existe a possibilidade de 20 anos de prisão, multa de 250 mil dólares e outras sanções pecuniárias. A empresa, que fechou em 2018, chegou a valer 9 bilhões. Holmes chegou a ter uma fortuna de 5 bilhões. O esquema caiu com reportagens investigativas do WSJ. O documentário The Inventor mostra como John Carreyrou, o repórter do Wall Street Journal, teve um papel importante neste caso.