>>I wonder what the stockholders would think if they really saw those balance sheets? Maybe a little sloppy accounting is necessary between business cycles to keep the stockholders interested.
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>I was with you Charlie, right up until there < g >. I don't see how sloppy accounting benefits anyone, especially the shareholders. It may help a company in the short-run, keeping the stock price artificially high, but in the long-run everyone loses.

I think that Accounting should be so simple that questions cannot arise. I believe that has always been the intention of Accounting. Accounting's basic purpose is to track money coming in and money going out.
There should be no question at all as to what is a real expense item and what is a real income item. EVERY item should be easily 'placed' and accounted for.
However, even President Bush says that 'sometimes there are differences of opinions as to how things should be accounted'. This is where the problem is! There is no need for there ever to be a 'difference of opinion' as far as accounting each item is concerned. Standards (rules) make these things clear.

I suppose that the complexities of the tax codes has allowed Accounting to 'benefit' from judgement calls in that area by extending the same confounding to Accounting. There really should be no such a thing as "creative accounting" - we all know that Accountants are the least creative people in the world < s >.
As long as lawmakers allow that "creative accounting" is the normal state of affairs there will be trouble.