What Are the IASB and FASB Smoking?

Posted on by Caleb Newquist

[T]he tediously-reported proclamation of real convergence commitment has never been more than a smokescreen behind which the divergent interests of the Americans and the Europeans have knocked heads to the point of insensibility. (For which, recall the continued fudging of the SEC as to whether, if ever, that agency is even going to confirm a date certain on which to decide if to weigh in or not […].) Why no-one has called the question on this endless charade reflects the two-level fantasy in the dialog: the IASB and the FASB both pretend to believe in the desirability of fully-converged accounting standards, and the community of financial statement issuers and users pretend to believe them. [Re:Balance]

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WFT Names New Chief Accounting Officer Who Will Hopefully Avoid Any More Giant Tax WTFs

Remember Weatherford International? That’s the oil services company that had a ton of material weakness around their tax accounting that led to $500 million error. This resulted in restatements, a humiliated CFO and the Chief Accounting Officer resigning “to pursue other opportunities.”


But now, four months later, everyone has moved on and the company has some new blood:

Weatherford International Ltd. […] announced today that John H. Briscoe has agreed to join the company as Vice President –Chief Accounting Officer. Mr. Briscoe will report to the company’s Chief Financial Officer.

Mr. Briscoe served as Vice President and Controller of Transocean Ltd. from October 2007 to present. He also fulfilled additional roles in internal audit, investor relations and field finance. Prior to joining Transocean in 2005, Mr. Briscoe served as Ferrellgas Inc.’s Vice President of Accounting and served in other senior roles during his eight years with the company. Mr. Briscoe also served as Controller for Latin America for Dresser Industries Inc. Mr. Briscoe started his career with seven years in public accounting beginning with the firm of KPMG and ending with Ernst & Young as an Audit Manager. Mr. Briscoe is a certified public accountant.

Yes, that Transocean.