The precedent was set in March of 2009 when Bernanke and Geithner threatened the wimpy accountants at the FASB and forced them to waive the mark to market accounting rules, so the Too Big To Trust Wall Street Criminal Banks could lie and produce fictitious financial statements. When you’re insolvent, just make up the numbers on your financial statements, with the blessing of the government, Federal Reserve and FASB.
It seems the mega-corporations that make up the S&P 500 have taken the lesson to heart. When your profits are falling, just produce alternatives numbers that show them rising. As someone with an accounting degree and a CPA license I can tell you they don’t teach NON-GAAP accounting in college. There are no questions on the CPA exam referencing NON-GAAP accounting. That is because NON-GAAP means nothing. It is nothing but a lie. Both the Wall Street shysters and the captured corporate MSM report this bullshit with a straight face as if it is the truth. It’s not.
Everyone knows the BIG LIE works if you state it loud enough and keep repeating it. There are executive stock options to cash and Wall Street banker bonuses to be paid out. Truth is treason in an empire of lies.
Any time there’s some illegal, shady, downright crooked shit going on in some corporation; there’s always going to be a crooked shyster account/ CPA somewhere in the mix. Just sayin– Got a keep a close eye on those types.
No accountants should be trusted.
When I was younger I umpired baseball games…..the old adage was call’em as yah see’em…if yah don’t see it….make it up.The banks and the rest of Wallstreeet are doing the same thing.
Jim…is Dewey,Cheetham and Howe accounting firm still around?
They changed their name to Arthur Andersen and then took Enron on as a client.
Now they’re called Accenture.
Keep pointing out the lies Admin. I doubt many people realize just how big a deal this non-gaap crap is.
Jim, remember those AA morons Ikea hired to run the audit department? Kept slipping in their own drool every time they stood up.
And then we have the mega-corporations goosing their EPS by buying back their own stock at all-time highs. They are the biggest purchasers of stock.
They changed their name to Arthur Andersen and then took Enron on as a client. -Admin
LMAO…but true.
Gayle nailed it down.
…..don’t forget the dividends they paid – the cherry on top. The balloon is so full and the walls so thin its damn near transparent.