I see that FASB is sticking to its schedule for ending most off-balance-sheet treatment for leases, and so is the IASB. It's about time, frankly, if only to spare us poor, I mean, intrepid financial journalists from having to sort through the particulars of the current accounting treatment a moment longer than necessary.

I speak from personal experience here, having wrestled with the false distinction between capital and operating leases for a sidebar to a piece I wrote for CFO Magazine way back when. The article delved into the details of a particularly complex variation that companies were using to finance real estate, called synthetic leases.

Submitted by Francine McKenna, republished from Going Concern, Accounting News for Accountants and CFOs.

I watched all 11 hours yesterday of the Goldman Sachs testimony to the Senate Permanent Committee on Investigations.

I never expected anyone to mention the auditors and I was not disappointed. You may think, given my criticism of the auditors, that I would be cheering on the side of the inquisitors, ready to burn the smarty-pants, smug, supercilious Goldman "banksters" at the stake.

Well... you would be wrong.