Paradoxo Nórdico

O VE trouxe uma extensa reportagem sobre o “Estado Feminino”: a participação da mulher na Noruega. Eis dois dados do texto:

A lei de igualdade de gênero exige uma cota de 40% de mulheres nas organizações públicas. Esta lei foi estendida para os conselhos das estatais, em 2004, e para os conselhos de administração das empresas abertas, e 2006.

O aumento da participação feminina no mercado de trabalho agregou 360 milhões de dólares à economia, entre 1972 a 2013

Ainda assim, parece não ser suficiente: a mulher na Noruega ganha 88% do salário do homem, talvez uma das maiores taxas do mundo, mas indicando existir desigualdade. Mesmo com as cotas, 34% dos cargos diretivos no setor público são ocupados pelas mulheres.

Um detalhe que escapou: o paradoxo nórdico. Uma pesquisa comparou a Suécia com a Espanha (ok, não é a Noruega, mas tudo indica que os dados são equivalentes): a violência doméstica é maior na Suécia. E parece válido para Dinamarca

Nordic countries are known for their progressive childcare and paid leave policies, but many of them suffer from high incidences of domestic violence. In Denmark, 32% of women said they had experienced intimate physical and/or sexual violence at least once in their lifetime.
A 2016 report refers to this phenomenon as the "Nordic paradox," suggesting that there may be an unexpected backlash against women in gender-equal societies.
Since 2002, Denmark has launched multiple national action plans to confront this issue. The most recent plan focuses on young people exposed to dating violence.

Os índices de violência parecem ocorrer em outros países daquela região

Rir é o melhor remédio

Conselho no outdoor da Funerária: digite e dirija.

Razões para ser um contador

Why did you become an accountant?
Posted by AICPA Communications on Nov 10, 2019

Today is International Accounting Day, a day started to honor Luca Pacioli — the Father of Accounting and Bookkeeping. On this day, we honor the hard work of accounting and finance professionals around the world. To celebrate, we asked CPAs why they chose the accounting profession. Here’s what they said.

“I went to college knowing one thing — I was going to college. I didn’t know what my major would be, so I started taking classes that I thought sounded interesting. A year and a half in, I signed up for my first accounting class. I jokingly tell people that on day one in my intro to accounting class, I could hear a chorus of angels singing. Suddenly, I’d found my calling — debits and credits were the most genius thing ever. It clicked, it made sense and I loved it! Accounting is the language of business and financial literacy — a valuable life skill. The opportunities I’ve had because I’m a CPA are more than I could have imagined, and I’m very thankful I signed up for that intro to accounting class.”

Lisa Simpson, CPA, CGMA

“If you ask my friends and co-workers to use one word to describe me, I believe the overwhelming majority would say that I am logical. I decided to pursue a career in accounting because of my logical nature. I wanted to have a job. No matter how the economy is doing, companies will always need someone to assist with their finances. However, having a good salary and job security was not the only motivation for me to become an accountant. My passion for playing with numbers and understanding the story behind them rather than just counting them inspired me to pursue a career in accounting. There’s nothing more exciting than seeing clients’ faces light up when I find a solution to their problems or ‘translate’ technical language of ASCs into plain English for them. Accounting is indeed a fulfilling career.”

Iryna Klepcha, CPA

“The reason I got into accounting was to get into the FBI. I was good at accounting in high school. I had four schools that were recruiting me for football, and the school I chose had a great accounting program. My friend’s father told me to go for accounting while his son and my other friends went to school for law enforcement. He said this way, when I showed up to the crime scene, I could tell them ‘out of the way, I’m in charge.’ Went to the right school [Canisius] for the wrong reason [to play football] but was lucky enough they had a strong culture of promoting the CPA. Something I didn’t know anything about and when I learned of it, I started to attend ‘Meet the Accountants’ nights. When meeting firm representatives, it changed my career goal to become a CPA.”

Mark Koziel, CPA, CGMA

“Compassionate. Protector. Always. CPA. When I was five, I would use my dad’s 10-key [the kind with printing tape] and a periscope-style flashlight I pretended was a phone to play a made-up game I called ‘office,’ where my friends and I ran a company helping others make sound financial decisions with their Monopoly money. Twenty years later, I became a CPA. Why? Because — like the other hats I wear as a daughter, sister, wife, mom, friend, colleague and coach — it affords me the opportunity to connect with others in a meaningful way to share love, kindness, compassion and appreciation. Every day, I get to use my gifts to help others, protect the public and advocate for the accounting profession.”

Sarah Bradley, CPA

“I became an accountant because I’ve always been fascinated by business, and accounting is the language of business. My goal was to become a CFO. And, to manage an organization’s finances or make sound investment decisions, you need to speak the language. My interests changed over time, but my career progression wouldn’t have been possible without my background in accounting.”

Carl Mayes, CPA

“I became a CPA because I wanted to help people’s dreams come true. Dreamsreams often start with a solid financial footprint, and CPAs are the best at helping people achieve their financial dreams — so that their clients are able to pay for their children to go to college and achieve their college dreams, buy their dream vacation home or even retire earlier and live their dream life. Plus, I became a CPA because I really like to work with people and connect with them so that I am part of their team in terms of their financial and tax planning goals. The CPA profession is extremely rewarding, and I’m grateful for the experiences I’ve had in the profession. Plus, it has allowed me ample opportunities to grow and prosper and the work-life balance to make time for all of the things I enjoy.”

Susan C. Allen, CPA/CITP, CGMA

We want to keep celebrating you and everything you do. Share your “why” on social media using #InternationalAccountingDay. If you’d like to celebrate with the AICPA, become a member today and use code LUCA20 to receive a special discount.

Liz Rock, Manager — Branded Content Strategy, Association of International Certified Professional Accountants

O mundo está louco

Money is free for those who are creditworthy because the investors who are giving it to them are willing to get back less than they give. More specifically investors lending to those who are creditworthy will accept very low or negative interest rates and won’t require having their principal paid back for the foreseeable future. They are doing this because they have an enormous amount of money to invest that has been, and continues to be, pushed on them by central banks that are buying financial assets in their futile attempts to push economic activity and inflation up. The reason that this money that is being pushed on investors isn’t pushing growth and inflation much higher is that the investors who are getting it want to invest it rather than spend it. This dynamic is creating a “pushing on a string” dynamic that has happened many times before in history (though not in our lifetimes) and was thoroughly explained in my book Principles for Navigating Big Debt Crises. As a result of this dynamic, the prices of financial assets have gone way up and the future expected returns have gone way down while economic growth and inflation remain sluggish. Those big price rises and the resulting low expected returns are not just true for bonds; they are equally true for equities, private equity, and venture capital, though these assets’ low expected returns are not as apparent as they are for bond investments because these equity-like investments don’t have stated returns the way bonds do. As a result, their expected returns are left to investors’ imaginations. Because investors have so much money to invest and because of past success stories of stocks of revolutionary technology companies doing so well, more companies than at any time since the dot-com bubble don’t have to make profits or even have clear paths to making profits to sell their stock because they can instead sell their dreams to those investors who are flush with money and borrowing power. There is now so much money wanting to buy these dreams that in some cases venture capital investors are pushing money onto startups that don’t want more money because they already have more than enough; but the investors are threatening to harm these companies by providing enormous support to their startup competitors if they don’t take the money. This pushing of money onto investors is understandable because these investment managers, especially venture capital and private equity investment managers, now have large piles of committed and uninvested cash that they need to invest in order to meet their promises to their clients and collect their fees.

At the same time, large government deficits exist and will almost certainly increase substantially, which will require huge amounts of more debt to be sold by governments—amounts that cannot naturally be absorbed without driving up interest rates at a time when an interest rate rise would be devastating for markets and economies because the world is so leveraged long. Where will the money come from to buy these bonds and fund these deficits? It will almost certainly come from central banks, which will buy the debt that is produced with freshly printed money. This whole dynamic in which sound finance is being thrown out the window will continue and probably accelerate, especially in the reserve currency countries and their currencies—i.e., in the US, Europe, and Japan, and in the dollar, euro, and yen. 

At the same time, pension and healthcare liability payments will increasingly be coming due while many of those who are obligated to pay them don’t have enough money to meet their obligations. Right now many pension funds that have investments that are intended to meet their pension obligations use assumed returns that are agreed to with their regulators. They are typically much higher (around 7%) than the market returns that are built into the pricing and that are likely to be produced. As a result, many of those who have the obligations to deliver the money to pay these pensions are unlikely to have enough money to meet their obligations. Those who are recipients of these benefits and expecting these commitments to be adhered to are typically teachers and other government employees who are also being squeezed by budget cuts. They are unlikely to quietly accept having their benefits cut. While pension obligations at least have some funding, most healthcare obligations are funded on a pay-as-you-go basis, and because of the shifting demographics in which fewer earners are having to support a larger population of baby boomers needing healthcare, there isn’t enough money to fund these obligations either. Since there isn’t enough money to fund these pension and healthcare obligations, there will likely be an ugly battle to determine how much of the gap will be bridged by 1) cutting benefits, 2) raising taxes, and 3) printing money (which would have to be done at the federal level and pass to those at the state level who need it). This will exacerbate the wealth gap battle. While none of these three paths are good, printing money is the easiest path because it is the most hidden way of creating a wealth transfer and it tends to make asset prices rise. After all, debt and other financial obligations that are denominated in the amount of money owed only require the debtors to deliver money; because there are no limitations made on the amounts of money that can be printed or the value of that money, it is the easiest path. The big risk of this path is that it threatens the viability of the three major world reserve currencies as viable storeholds of wealth. At the same time, if policy makers can’t monetize these obligations, then the rich/poor battle over how much expenses should be cut and how much taxes should be raised will be much worse. As a result rich capitalists will increasingly move to places in which the wealth gaps and conflicts are less severe and government officials in those losing these big tax payers will increasingly try to find ways to trap them.

At the same time as money is essentially free for those who have money and creditworthiness, it is essentially unavailable to those who don’t have money and creditworthiness, which contributes to the rising wealth, opportunity, and political gaps. Also contributing to these gaps are the technological advances that investors and the entrepreneurs that I previously mentioned are excited by in the ways I described, and that also replace workers with machines. Because the “trickle-down” process of having money at the top trickle down to workers and others by improving their earnings and creditworthiness is not working, the system of making capitalism work well for most people is broken.

This set of circumstances is unsustainable and certainly can no longer be pushed as it has been pushed since 2008. That is why I believe that the world is approaching a big paradigm shift.

Fonte: aqui

História da Contabilidade em 20 imagens

O texto a seguir é uma adaptação da seção "Ilustração" do livro de Jacob Soll, The Reckoning. São vinte imagens. Boa Leitura.

Jan Provost, A Morte e o Avarento, no início do século dezesseis. Groeningemuseum, Bruges, Bélgica. Mestres holandeses e flamengos pintaram imagens de aviso, celebrando a proeza de seus cidadãos na contabilidade e alertando que os humanos nunca poderiam equilibrar completamente seus livros. O homem teria que prestar contas a Deus, que sempre faria o acerto de contas final.

Hendrick ter Brugghen, O Chamado de São Mateus, 1621. Museu Central em Utrecht, Holanda. Santo padroeiro dos contadores, banqueiros e perfumistas, São Mateus transmitiu mensagens conflitantes sobre finanças, deixando a cristandade com um grande enigma moral: era ou não imoral administrar e ganhar dinheiro? Mateus insistia que a riqueza tinha que ser tratada com competência e honestidade, mas, ao mesmo tempo, era terrena e pecaminosa. Essa ambiguidade moral ainda hoje está conosco.

Hans Memling, Último julgamento, painel central, c. 1467-1471. Pomorskie Museum, Gdansk, Polônia. O diretor da agência de Bruges do Banco Médici, Tomasso Portinari, encomendou a pintura de Hans Memling, O Último Julgamento, (pintado entre 1547-1461). Nele, o arcanjo São Miguel mantém uma escala de acerto de contas final, na qual pesa almas e decide quem vai para o inferno. A vida imitou a arte quando, em 1477, Portinari arruinou o Banco Medici com investimentos arriscados e foi lançado na pobreza e desgraça.

Francesco Sassetti, Libro Segreto (Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Itália). As páginas do livro contábil secreto do chefe de contabilidade para o Banco Medici, Francesco Sassetti, revel suas falhas como contador. Quando essas contas foram feitas no início dos anos 1470, Sassetti havia se tornado descuidado com as auditorias e os lançamentos, e o banco estava à beira do colapso financeiro.

Domenico Ghirlandaio, Confirmação da Regra Franciscana pelo Papa Honorius III, c 1485. Detalhe da nave da capela Sassetti, Santa Trindade, Florença, Itália. Mais do que focar na disciplina contábil e na administração bancária, Sassetti foi consumido por seu patrocínio à Capela Sassetti de Ghirlandaio na Igreja de Santa Trindade, em Florença, uma obra prima da arte neoplatonista. Já não se via como contador, mas como patrício piedoso e instruído, Sassetti foi pintado ao lado de seu empregador e do governante de Florença, Lorenço "O Magnífico" de Medici.

Domenico Ghirlandaio - Francesco Sassetti e seu filho Teodoro, c. 1488. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. O retrato Francesco Sassetti e seu filho Teodoro (1488) é notável por sua falta de semelhança com o retratado. Ele foi pintado na sua ausência porque Sassetti partiu para Lyon para assumir a responsabilidade pelo colapso da filial e deixou a pintura como uma lembrança de si mesmo para seus filhos. Antes um contador habilidoso e respeitado, o homem que ajudou a derrubar o Banco Medici retornaria a Florença como um homem em ruínas.

Jacopo de Barbari, Retrato de Frei Luca Pacioli, c. 1500, Museo di Capodimonte, Nápoles, Itália. Retrato famoso de Jacopo de Barbari do Frei Luca Pacioli, autor do primeiro manual impresso de contabilidade de partidas dobradas. A estatura de Pacioli como professor de matemática e contabilidade era tal que ele foi pintado em primeiro plano, com seu aluno e patrão, Guidobaldo de Montefeltro, Duque de Urbino, estando atrás dele. Um contador nunca mais seria pintado em superioridade a um homem da nobreza.

Jan Gossaert, Retrato de um Mercador, c. 1530. National Gallery of Art, Washington. No início dos anos 1500, Antuérpia e cidades vizinhas tinha tornardo o centro do comércio mundial e expertise contábil. A famosa pintura de Jan Gossaert celebra a riqueza e as ferramentas contábeis correspondentes de um mercado de sucesso, Jan Snouck Jacobs (1510-1585)

Quentin Metsys, O lavador de dinheiro e sua esposa, 1514. Museu do Louvre, Paris, França. A pintura de Quentin Metsys é um estudo de como os comerciantes podiam levar uma vida piedosa administrando bem seu dinheiro e também sendo cristãos devotos. Observe que a esposa segura um Livro de Horas iluminado com um retrato da Virgem Maria e que contas e letras de câmbio estão na prateleira ao fundo.

Marinus van Reymerswaele, O Cambista e sua esposa, 1539. Museu Nacional do Prado, Madri, Espanha. Em uma versão posterior do quadro de Metsys, Marinus van Reymerswaele remove o aspecto religioso, substituindo o livro do salmo por um livro contábil, celebrando, assim, tanto a proeza flamenga na contabilidade quanto a virtude da boa irmandade.

Quentin Metsys, Os cambistas, c. 1549, Musei Bellas Artes de Bilbao, Espanha. Em 1540s, entretanto, artistas como Quentin Metsys e Marinus van Reymerswaele começam a retratar contabilidade como uma atividade possivelmente fraudulenta e imoral. Tanto Metsys e van Reymerwaele pintaram um número de versões desta imagem de "cambistas" ou "coletores de impostos" não confiáveis e possivelmente judeus.

Marinus van Reymerswaele, Dois coletores de impostos, c. 1540. National Gallery, Londres. Nesta pintura de coletores de impostos mantendo as contas, van Reymerswaele descreve vividamente as ferramentas usadas pelos contadores: livros, letras de câmbio, selos e arquivos. No entanto, ele associa a gestão financeira com figuras distorcidas e toucas satíricas, possivelmente apontamento para a loucura humana da ganância e a arrogância na gestão de fortunas. Em lugar de celebrar a contabilidade e o comércio, estes quadros alertam para o perigo de confiar demais nas ferramentas financeiras do cálculo e da gestão.

Jan de Baen, Os corpos dos irmãos De Witt, c. 1672-1675, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Holanda.
Apesar da sofisticação e dedicação financeira e contábil de Jan de Witt ao modelo republicano holandês de política, e este constitui um exemplo para a experiência política moderna, em 1672 ele e seu irmão Cornelis foram depostos pelo poderoso príncipe de Orange. Sob as ordens do princípe, uma multidão estripou e linchou os dois, cortando os dedos das mãos e dos pés e comendo seus órgãos internos.

William Hogarth, Casamento à la Mode: no.2, tête à tête, c. 1743, National Gallery Londres. A pintura de Hogarth Brevemente depois do casamento ou Tête à Tête (1743-1745) é um retrato vívido da relação ambivalente na elite britânica sobre a contabilidade na época de Robert Walpole. Ela mostra um visconde de ressaca esparramado na cadeira depois de um noite foram em um bordel ou com sua amante, enquanto sua esposa começa a acordar depois de uma longa festa com jogos de cartas em casa. O camareiro deles caminha para longe com horror, levando recibos e um razão, que não é de interesse deles.

Josiah Wedgwood e Filhos, Dark Blue Jasper Dip Medallion de Jacques Necker, c. 1770-1800 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). Um exemplo fino da valiosa cerâmica de jaspe, este medalhão é um retrato do ministro francês e autor de Compte rendu, Jacques Necker. Enquanto os amigos dissidentes radicais de Wedgwood lutaram pelos ideais políticos adotados por Necker, Wedgwood se satisfaz vendendo aparições lucrativas de figuras políticas e equilibrando seus livros .

Thomas Hickey, John Mowbray com seu agente de dinheiro, Banian, c. 1790. Biblioteca Britânica. Na metade do século dezoito, industriais e colonialistas britânicos usavam a contabilidade com tal sucesso que eles geraram uma riqueza sem precedente. Ele tinham tal confiança em suas habilidades com gestores financeiras que uma série de retratos de britânicos conduzindo seus negócios foram pintados mostrando pessoas sorrindo sob seus livros contábeis. Essa confiança feliz na contabilidade irá desaparecer no tempo de Dickens, um século mais tarde.

Benjamin Franklin, Instruções para os Chefes dos Correios manterem suas contas, Filadélfia, 1753 (Sociedade Histórica da Filadélfia). Benjamin Franklin era fascinado por contabilidade. Ele manteve livros de partidas dobradas, escreveu sobre contabilidade e até compôs sua autobiografia nas páginas de um livro de contabilidade. Enquanto chefe dos correios britânicos na colônia americana, ele criou este mapa para cada agência dos correios. Não somente explicou para seus chefes de agências, mas também fez um mini manual de contabilidade de partidas dobradas para que qualquer pessoa que viesse aos correios pudesse aprender o básico da contabilidade, que Franklin considerava essencial para a vida cotidiana.

Compte rendu au roi par M Necker, Paris, 1781, Biblioteca da Princeton University. A contagem final do diretor financeiro francês de Louis XVI, Jacques Necker, o revolucionário e bem vendido Compte rendu au roy (1781). Foi a primeira vez que um político reivindicaria de um superávit - neste caso, 10,2 milhões de livres - como uma declaração de sucesso político. Necker começou uma tradição de usar números grandes e muitas vezes imprecisos como propaganda política, uma tradição desgastada que continua até hoje.

Registro do Tesouro dos Estados Unidos, Um visão geral das receitas e gastos do dinheiro público, por autoridade do superintendente de finanças, por tempo de entrada na administração, para 31 de dezembro de 1781. Inspirado no Compte rendu de Necker, o Superintendente de Finanças Americano Robert Morris publicou esta cópia das contas do tesouro do governo dos EUA. Transparência contábil tornou-se central entre os fundadores americanos e foi consagrada no Artigo 1, seção 9, da Constituição.

Henry David Thoreau, Contas para Walden, 1846-1847. Huntington. Um dos líderes do movimento transcendentalismo americano, Henry David Thoreau buscou a volta para natureza e o estado de pura espiritualidade pela rejeição de bens materiais. Esta rara folha de notas do seu trabalho para o clássico Walden, ele voltou para os princípios contábeis calculando o mínimo necessário para subsistência.

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Broedel no Iasb

The IFRS Foundation has announced the appointment of Alexsandro Broedel, Joanna Perry, and Maria Theofilaktidis as Trustees of the IFRS Foundation. Their appointments will begin on 1 January 2020 and will expire on 31 December 2022.

Alexsandro Broedel is Group Executive Finance Director and Investor Relations Head at Itau Unibanco in Brazil.

Joanna Perry holds a variety of senior non-executive positions for both public and private organisations in New Zealand and is serving the last few weeks of her second term as Chair of the IFRS Advisory Council.

Maria Theofilaktidis is Executive Vice-President, Chief Compliance Officer and Head of Enterprise Risk for The Bank of Nova Scotia.

In addition, the current IFRS Foundation Trustees Else Bos, Su-Keun Kwak, and Guangyao Zhu have been reappointed to serve a second three-year term, also beginning on 1 January 2020.

Fonte: Aqui