Thursday, February 03, 2011
Embarrassing
Here is an embarrassing story. The agency responsible for proper financial reporting in US public companies is unable to keep its own books straight. It is not surprising given the nature of government accounting, which is different from public company accounting. On the other hand, it is harder for the Securities and Exchange Commission to haul companies into court for failures of accounting when it can't do any better itself. The SEC is in a position of saying, "Do as I say and not as I do." The problem for the agency will come in the governmental budgeting process. Senators and Congressmen will tell the SEC to clean up its books before it gets more monies that the SEC says it desperately needs. The SEC has damaged its reputation on the Hill, and it will take time to regain the respect it needs. An interesting PR issue that press releases won't help...
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