ANTHONY H. CATANACH JR. is an associate professor in the School of Business at Villanova University, as well as the Cary M. Maguire Fellow at the American College Center for Ethics in Financial Services. His professional experience includes five years as an audit manager with KPMG and six years in the financial services industry. Dr. Catanach has received numerous awards for his publication, teaching, and curriculum innovation efforts. He has authored numerous articles on a variety of accounting, finance, and management issues, as well as several business education texts..
It’s been a decade or so since the FASB started talking about principles-based accounting. We are not sure what caused the impetus, but we think the first serious discussion occurred when the FASB issued a document for public comment on October 21, 2002. It wasn’t particularly compelling then, and it hasn’t gotten any better with [...]
Jan 232012
Richard Bove is a bank analyst who had the audacity to tell the truth, such as predicting troubles for the bank industry at the beginning of the financial crisis. BankAtlantic did not care for the truth to be revealed to the public, so it sued him. After all, Bove had no right to disclose the [...]
Jan 092012
The Christmas and New Year’s break allows university faculty not only to enjoy family and friends, but also it supplies a moment to do some nontechnical reading. After all, we don’t need that much time to look over our teaching notes. Faculty need something constructive to do during the three or four weeks we have [...]
Dec 222011
With Christmas nearly upon us, these two Grumpy Old Accountants have become a bit melancholy (not totally unexpected at this time of year given our advancing ages), and have decided to ask Santa for some help in restoring the glory of our beloved accounting profession. The result: our Christmas “wish” List for Santa.
On November 28 Judge Rakoff rejected a proposed settlement between the SEC and Citigroup. Pundits have applauded this rebuff, many with good reasons, but everybody is still missing the point of these civil fines. And the bad guys are free to defraud investors another day.
J. EDWARD KETZ is an associate professor of accounting in the Smeal College of Business at Pennsylvania State University. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science, a master’s degree in accountancy, and a Ph.D., all from Virginia Tech. Professor Ketz has been a member of the Penn State faculty since 1981. He also has taught at the University of Connecticut and the University of Maryland. Professor Ketz has authored and edited 17 books including Hidden Financial Risk (Wiley, 2003) which examines the corporate culture and the institutional setting that engendered recent accounting scandals. Dr. Ketz has been cited in the popular and business press, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Business Week, and USA Today. He also has appeared as an accounting commentator on CNN, National Public Radio, and Bloomberg Radio.