AN ACCOUNTING PERSPECTIVE ON A CRISIS PERPETUATED THORUGH THE CAPITAL MARKET

Our paper analyzes the current financial crisis starting with some recent developments and reactions in the field of accounting. We find that involved parties within the financial system naturally look for a “scapegoat” instead of dealing with reality. Moreover, they try to avoid regulations that would reflect their current financial position and performance. Meanwhile, what reality reveals us is that we are dealing with a crisis of value, or better said valuation, framed by significant changes of paradigms. Starting with thoughts and reactions within trade literature and financial environment, we analyze some mechanisms of credit derivatives that propagated the crisis within the global financial system. Finally, we prove our point in defending fair value accounting and identify key aspects that allow future improvements. The need for informational transparency is emphasized through the whole paper.Financial crisis, fair value, derivatives, mortgages, informational transparency, capital markets

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTING MODEL: THEORETICAL STUDIES IN REVIEW

Our paper analyzes the manner in which the financial reporting model evolved towards fair value accounting. After a brief introduction into the context of financial reporting at international level, the analysis focuses on the accounting model of fair value. This is done by synthesizing main studies in accounting research literature that analyze fair value accounting through a theoretical approach. The analysis being developed relies on literature review methodology. The main purpose of the developed analysis is to synthesize main pros and cons as being documented through accounting research literature. Our findings underline both the advantages and shortcomings of fair value accounting and of the recent mixed attribute in nowadays financial reporting practices. The concluding remarks synthesize the obtained results and possible future developments of our analysis.fair value, accounting research literature, mixed attribute, pros, cons

Valuation of Inventories Considering the Fair Value Options

Our paper represents a pleading for fair value in the specific case of valuating inventories. The real significance and implications of fair value can only be seen after analyzing the topic from different points of view concerning all involved actors. Therefore we have based our scientific demarche on analyzing the trade literature and comparing the foresights of international regulations given by both the accounting setting bodies and the valuation setting bodies. Moreover we have followed two of the three moments which require valuation and for these moments we have selected those cases which require the using of fair value. Our opinion regarding the findings of the research is expresses by giving practical examples for the specific application of fair value and the way to reach it.Fair value, inventories, recognition, market value

Fair Value Accounting for Financial Instruments – Conceptual Approach and Implications

This study complements the growing literature on the value relevance of fair value by examining the validity of the hypothesis that fair value is more informative than historical cost as a financial reporting standard for financial instruments. We therefore compare the relative explanatory power of fair value and historical cost in explaining equity values. In order to reflect fair values’ role in offering the fair view where financial instruments are concerned we briefly reviewed capital market studies that examine the usefulness of fair value accounting to investors, and discuss marking-to-market implementation issues of determining financial instruments’ fair values. In doing so, we identified several key issues, which need to be analyzed. More importantly, our results suggest that simply requiring fair value, as the reported measure for financial instruments may not improve the quality of information unless appropriate estimation methods or guidance for financial instruments that are not traded in active markets can be established. In contrast, fair value of available-for-sale securities, which are more actively traded in well-established markets, explains equity values more than historical cost. Taken together, our results are consistent with the notion that fair value is more (less) value relevant when objective market- determined fair value measures are (not) available.

SEARCHING FOR THE FAIR STORY BEHIND FAIR VALUE FOR FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS

Our paper aims at telling the whole story where fair value accounting is concerned. Harsh criticism has been brought to this concept under current circumstances that motivated out research. Without arguing for fair value as something it is not, we brieflyFair value accounting, standards setting bodies, financial crisis

The intellect of art : post- Auschwitz MA (fine or ugly arts) or we should talk less and draw more (Goethe), should we? Wozu dichter, what for indeed (Holderin). Nur lallen und lallen, immer-, immer- zuzu (Celan). Can we, after all the kaleidoscopic refractions of thousands of holocausts?

This paper discusses a fundamental question concerning not only the relationship between artistic technique and academic research but what role this relationship plays, if at all, during a period of genocides and a radical evolution towards a complete dehumanisation of mankind’s existence. The essay’s corresponding sub-text deals with the iconic debate between Adorno and Benjamin around the character of the contemporary art scene during the fundamental and seemingly irreversible establishment of a consumerist-fetishistic society. The essay thus calls for a re-qualification of methods of artistic research and a re-definition of art academia taking into account a novel situation in which techne has become poiesis in a period of apocalyptic tragedy. One of the central theses of the essay concerns the inability of philosophy and its corresponding conceptual language to articulate and to dig into the very meaning of a work of art, let alone the meaning and analysis of art history through art praxis. This reflects a deep paradox if one understands that art itself has today transformed itself into philosophy. We are therefore encountering a philosophy of man which cannot articulate its own meaning.peer-reviewe

Inverse, reverse perspective as subversive perspective in Florensky’s silent mutiny : a debate

Panofsky (1892-1968) opens his Perspective as Symbolic form with Item Perspectiva ist ein lateinisch Wort, bedeutt ein Durchsehung. Perspectiva is a Latin word which means “seeing through,” a Boethius-Dürer concept of perspective as a window. This was the main Quattrocento-Cinquecento idea of perception via perspectiva: a Quattro-Cinquecento state whose re-birth one witnesses in the rationality of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: “positivism, linearity, and ‘singularity’ across a wide number of fields.” Florensky (1882-1937) challenges this with his own version proposing transcendental reality as one in which and through which mankind finds itself to be seen through, instead of the Kantian passive immobile subject “acting” on the world through a window. The depiction by the subject of the subject’s reality being seen through is integrally linked with what Florensky terms as Polycentredness, an intriguing parallel concept to Bakhtin’s contemporary idea of polyphonic heteroglossia. Essentially, and narrowly, this means that “the composition is constructed [stroitsa] as if the eye were looking at different parts of it while changing its position.” In reverse-inverse perspective, which Florensky finds to have been already exploited in antiquity, there are two double actions, again reflecting and appropriating Bakhtin’s philosophical concept of “the dialogic”: the action of “being seen through” and simultaneously the action of the subject perceiving the multi-view points in spatial, or rather in chronotopic movement, whilst being “seen through” and thus grasping or attempting to grasp what is essentially a nonvisual situation, i.e. that of a transcendental reality, which for Florensky is the only reality.peer-reviewe

Trade union strategy in Sydney's construction union: a Roman Catholic perspective

Rudd Government ministers have talked tough towards the more militant Australian trade unions since coming to office in November 2007. However, despite this, it is still fair to say that the removal of the Howard-Costello Government reduced neo-liberal hegemony by altering the invisible balance of power between capital and labour in the construction industry. Using a set of case studies, based on data obtained from fieldwork at the New South Wales, Australia branch of the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), we document key elements of union strategy at the branch level in the year immediately after the removal of the Howard-Costello Government. A key aspect of branch level strategy was building site visits by a team of organisers, led by the divisional state secretary, designed to rebuild influence on site and reconnect with workers. Furthermore, the CFMEU’s hiring of foreign language speaking organisers and production of foreign language publications is a praiseworthy attempt to reach out to ethnic minority workers and bring them under the ‘mainstream’ union umbrella. We use a theory framework of Roman Catholic social teaching to frame our discussions

Motivating Accounting Professionals in Romania. Analysis after Five Decades of Communist Ideology and Two Decades of Accounting Harmonization

Our paper focuses on accounting professionals in Romania as being a significant element when considering a national accounting system that went through complex accounting reforms of more than two decades. Since accounting policy represents an area of social and economic policy we must also consider the five decades of communist regime leaving their fingerprint on the Romanian society. It is our objective to capture the perception of the Romanian accounting profession that actually witnessed all these processes of transformation. More precisely we focus on exploring the motivational pattern of Romanian accounting professionals, arguing that our results could offer useful insights when it comes to accountants’ drivers to participate in the international accounting arena and therefore in the international accounting harmonization process. Our theoretical framework is based on Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory. Since Herzberg in his studies used the interview method, for more consistency, we found an interview-based qualitative approach to be the most appropriate to our research. One of our conclusions is that Herzberg’s theory can identify and explain reasonably well the motivational factors of today’s Romanian accounting professionals. However, the theory must be adjusted for higher relevance: (1) salary is not seen hygiene but a motivator, (2) advancement is not a motivator but hygiene, and (3) team/staff with strong motivational effect must be added to the model. Motivators and Hygiene factors were directly related to the level of hierarchy and redrafted a different pattern within the structure of an entity. By analyzing the information being obtained through the interview process, our paper offers an overview on the particular work environment that characterizes the accounting professional of late Romanian modernity, after five decades of an ideology based system. The results of the performed analysis document the fact that alienation and dependence have not become characteristics of the modern accounting professional. Furthermore, dehumanization and exploitation prove to be, in the case of the Romanian accounting system, inevitable consequences of the division of labor and the development of private property.Drivers, Motivators, Hygiene Factors, Job Satisfaction, Labor Behavior, Organizational Culture, Human Resource Accounting

Valuation of Inventories Considering the Fair Value Options

Our paper represents a pleading for fair value in the specific case of valuating inventories. The real significance and implications of fair value can only be seen after analyzing the topic from different points of view concerning all involved actors. Therefore we have based our scientific demarche on analyzing the trade literature and comparing the foresights of international regulations given by both the accounting setting bodies and the valuation setting bodies. Moreover we have followed two of the three moments which require valuation and for these moments we have selected those cases which require the using of fair value. Our opinion regarding the findings of the research is expresses by giving practical examples for the specific application of fair value and the way to reach it