Tag: Accounting

Politicians, business people and financial commentators talk about economic growth as if they were discussing objective data, like population growth, or temperature. But national income accounting is every bit as much a subjective enterprise as the private sector accounting on which it ultimately depends.

Books that John has reviewed in the past...

Treating the value of share options as a cost makes a dramatic difference to the reported profits of many technology companies. And it points to a broader issue. In the knowledge economy, the distinction between employee remuneration and shareholder return is fundamentally changed

“Do the math” has become the mantra of a generation of consultants and investment bankers. The new economy, they claim, requires new principles of valuation. But the rules of logic hold even in cyberspace, and so do the principles of economics. Profits are hard to earn in competitive businesses, and markets that are not competitive are usually regulated.

There are many things wrong with British banks, but contrary to the Cruickshank Report, the fact that they make profits is not one of them.

Regardless of what something seems to be worth, I should never pay more for something than it would cost me to replace it. On this basis, mobile phone companies look expensive.

League tables are in vogue, and despite the difficulties they seem worthwhile. If only it were easy to produce a “value added” table.

While accounting firms are “going global”, their rationale for doing so does not apply to other industries.

Gordon Brown should be criticised if he does not propose a root and branch reform of corporation tax within the life of this parliament.

More careful thinking in the field of accountancy is bringing it closer to economics