The collected writings of Walter P. Scheutze here probe the most fundamental problems of corporate financial reporting, argue the case for accounting reform and propose well-informed solutions to these problems.

This book focuses on the events leading up to the Congressional call for a study illustrating the need for identifying and understanding the linkages that exist between fair value accounting standards and the usefulness of information provided by financial institutions. In the months preceding passage of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, some asserted that fair value accounting, along with the accompanying guidance on measuring fair value under Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS No. 157), contributed to instability in our financial markets. According to these critics, fair value accounting did so by requiring what some believed were potentially inappropriate write-downs in the value of investments held by financial institutions, most notably due to concerns that such write-downs were the result of inactive, illiquid, or irrational markets that resulted in values that did not reflect the underlying economics of the securities. For many years, accounting standards have required measurement of financial instruments on a financial institution's balance sheet at fair value. In some cases, for example when securities are actively traded, changes in fair value are required to be recognised in the income statement. This is the specific meaning of "mark-to-market" accounting. However, in most other cases, such changes in fair value are generally reported in other comprehensive income ("OCI") or equity, and these changes do not flow through to income unless an impairment has occurred. This book consists of public domain documents which have been located, gathered, combined, reformatted, and enhanced with a subject index, selectively edited and bound to provide easy access.

This book focuses on Fair Value Accounting which is a market-based accounting system for determining the value of assets and liabilities. Since the mid-1970's, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), the accounting standard setter that derives its informal authority from the Securities an Exchange Commission (SEC), has gradually been moving the nation from an accounting system based entirely on historic cost-based measurements of assets and liabilities to one based in part on fair value. Its basic reasoning is that fair value accounting provides market-based information that is more meaningful to investors. In 2006, FASB released Financial Accounting Standards No. 157, which refined previous fair value directives to further define the concept and clarified how to value instruments. FAS 157 went into effect in late 2007, a period that coincided with the growing severity of the current sub-prime-based financial turmoil. The worsening crisis helped fuel opposition to FAS 157. Opponents, including insurance firms and banks, argued that FAS 157 and fair value accounting protocol exacerbated the effects of the financial crisis by forcing holders to severely write down distressed or illiquid assets, which were often mortgage-backed securities, to levels far below their "true economic values". This book consists of public domain documents which have been located, gathered, combined, reformatted, and enhanced with a subject index, selectively edited and bound to provide easy access.

This paper shows that banks use accounting discretion to overstate the value of distressed assets. Banks' balance sheets overvalue real estate-related assets compared to the market value of these assets, especially during the U.S. mortgage crisis. Share prices of banks with large exposure to mortgage-backed securities also react favorably to recent changes in accounting rules that relax fair-value accounting, and these banks provision less for bad loans. Furthermore, distressed banks use discretion in the classification of mortgage-backed securities to inflate their books. Our results indicate that banks' balance sheets offer a distorted view of the financial health of the banks.