Insider trading and accounting reform: The Comstock case

This paper examines the hypothesis that major episodes of insider trading and business fraud promote accounting reforms. Dur-ing the 1860s and 1870s, the markets for Comstock mining shares reeled from one scandal after another. Eventually these scandals emerged as a leading political issue in California. The frauds contributed significantly to the passage of accounting and financial reporting reforms in 1880. The Comstock episode has implications for modern day instances of insider trading

Herbert C. Hoover: Accounting influences on his life

Herbert C. Hoover was arguably the most distinguished mining engineer in American history. During the early part of this century he enjoyed great success as a consultant and mine manager. He was regarded as one of the most skilled practitioners of his day. In addition, he was a regular contributer to the mining journals and wrote several books, two of which became classics (Principles of Mining and De Re Metallica, an annotated translation of the works of Agricola). The rationalization of management was an important theme in his life. He frequently turned to accounting as a means to improve management systems. This paper describes several of the more interesting stories concerning the role accounting played in Hoover\u27s early life

Standardization of mine accounting

His paper presents the history of the international efforts to standardize mine accounting between 1895 and 1915. Extractive industries, such as mining and oil and gas, posed especially difficult problems for the accounting profession. In 1895 there was almost no literature to help in the resolution of these problems. During this following interval the issues of mine accounting were thoroughly discussed and limited standardization was achieved in some regions. Near the end of this period the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy unanimously adopted a set of accounting standards for the mining industry

Whitaker Wright

Fraud is a significant problem for contemporary businesses, but it is not a new problem. Business fraud was common during the 1890s. This paper examines several accounting issues that were central to Whitaker Wright\u27s trial

Variable Lifetime Annuities: Can You Live Long Enough To Receive Fair Value?

This article presents an analysis of variable lifetime annuities and quantifies the advantages and disadvantages associated with this type of instrument. Given recent long-term rates of return and current low inflation rates, variable annuity contracts provide an effective means of compensating for inflation. An individual only needs to invest a small portion of retirement funds in variable annuities to protest the entire portfolio against the risk of long-term inflation without the risk of having ones entire retirement income based on variable annuities