Following the Money or Poverty and the Underclass

Following the Money: Corporate Disclosure in an Age of Globalization

Author: George J Benston

"A few years ago, Americans held out their systems of corporate governance and financial disclosure as models to be emulated by the rest of the world. But in late 2001 U.S. policymakers and corporate leaders found themselves facing the largest corporate accounting scandals in American history. The spectacular collapses of Enron and WorldCom - as well as the discovery of accounting irregularities at other large U.S. companies - seemed to call into question the efficacy of the entire system of corporate governance in the United States." "In response, Congress quickly enacted a comprehensive package of reform measures in what has come to be known as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ followed by making fundamental changes to their listing requirements. The private sector acted as well. Accounting firms - watching in horror as one of their largest, Arthur Andersen, collapsed after a criminal conviction for document shredding - tightened their auditing procedures. Stock analysis and ratings agencies, hit hard by a series of disclosures about their failings, changed their practices as well." Using the Enron case as a point of departure, the authors argue that the major problem lies not in the accounting and auditing standards themselves, but in the system of enforcing those standards. Rather than attempting to craft a single set of accounting and reporting standards for all companies throughout the world, the authors advise policymakers to allow competition between the two major sets of standards: Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and International Financial Reporting Standards.

Table of Contents:

	Foreword
1	The Crisis in Corporate Disclosure	1
2	What's Wrong - and Right - with Corporate Accounting and Auditing in the United States	18
3	Fixing Corporate Disclosure	49
4	Disclosure Challenges Ahead	80
App	What Are the Major Differences between GAAP and IFRS, and Why Do They Matter?	95
	Notes	105
	Contributors	117
	Index	119

New interesting book: Champagne or New Steak

Poverty and the Underclass: Changing Perceptions of the Poor in America

Author: William A A Kelso

An excellent introduction to the debate about poverty in America. He emphasizes how little we still know about this critical problem. Poverty in the land of plenty remains a mystery."
—Lawrence M. Mead, author of The New Politics of Poverty

A thoughtful analysis of one of America's most vexing social problems. Kelso eschews the platitudes of both left and right to examine the intractable nature of poverty and its diverse causes. He is especially insightful in his dissection of the role culture plays in poverty—and for the concern government should have for the character of its citizens."
—Linda Chavez, author of Out of the Barrio: Toward a New Politics of Hispanic Assimilation

Kelso's book provides an excellent overview of poverty and the underclass in American society, along with perceptive observations about how contemporary views of the poor are changing."
—Kenrick S. Thompson, Professor of Sociology, Northern Michigan University

The much-heralded War on Poverty has failed. The number of children living in poverty is steadily on the rise and an increasingly destructive underclass brutalizes urban neighborhoods. America's patience with the poor seems to have run out: even cities that have traditionally been havens for the homeless are arresting, harassing, and expelling their street people.

In this timely work, William Kelso analyzes how the persistence of poverty has resulted in a reversal of liberal and conservative positions during the last thirty years. While liberals in the 1960s hoped to eliminate the causes of poverty, today they increasingly seem resigned to merely treating its effects. Theoriginal liberal objective of giving the poor a helping hand by promoting equal opportunity has given way to a new agenda of entitlements and equal results. In contrast, conservatives who once suggested that trying to eliminate poverty was futile, now seek ways to eradicate the actual causes of poverty.

Poverty and the Underclass suggests that the arguments of both the left and right are misguided and offers new explanations for the persistence of poverty. Looking beyond the codewords that have come to obscure the debate—underclass, family values, the culture of poverty,—Kelso emphasizes that poverty is not a monolithic condition, but a vast and multidimensional problem.

During his Presidential campaign, Bill Clinton called for an overhaul of the welfare system and spoke of a new covenant to unite both the left and right in developing a common agenda for fighting poverty. In this urgent, landmark work, William Kelso merges conservative, radical, and liberal ideals to suggest how the intractable problem of poverty may be solved at long last by implementing the principles of this new covenant.

Booknews

Kelso analyzes how the persistence of poverty has reversed liberal and conservative positions during the last 30 years, suggests that the arguments of both the left and the right are misguided, offers new explanations for the persistence of poverty, and merges conservative, radical, and liberal ideas to suggest how the problem of poverty may be solved. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)