Why read The UK Accounting Standards Board, 1990-2000?

Book cover of The UK Accounting Standards Board, 1990-2000: Restoring Honesty and Trust in Accounting

Book description

In the late 1980s, financial accounting in Britain was in disarray. 'Creative' accounting was rife. The authority of the industry's standard-setters had been drastically compromised when their rules for inflation accounting were first ignored by many firms and then abandoned. There were calls for government to replace the accountants' self-regulation…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The UK Accounting Standards Board, 1990-2000 as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Geoff Meeks

Author

These three authors were brought in in 1990 to lead accounting standard-setting in the UK.

At the time, company accounts – especially those of merging companies - were a ‘laughing stock’, with profits often wildly overstated and debt materially understated. Against the expectation of many, they managed to outlaw companies’ preferred (profit-enhancing) accounting for M&A – ‘a triumph of diplomacy as well as intellectual ingenuity’ in the words of the Financial Times. The US and international standard-setters have since come close to adopting the same solution – but in the end have never quite dared.

The book combines rigorous discussion…

From Geoff's list on accounting for M&A.