Indecent Disclosure: Gilding the Corporate Lily
Cambridge University Press, 6/29/2007
EAN 9780521701839, ISBN10: 052170183X
Paperback, 296 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm
Language: English
Indecent Disclosure captures the anguish the commercial public experiences when the misleading financial disclosures of some public corporations lead to an unexpected collapse. Here, the authors pursue four main themes as underpinning the crisis in companies' financial disclosures. First, companies' compliance with the accounting standards does not produce financial statements that disclose their wealth and financial progress; second, misleading financial statements are more the result of compliance with the accounting rules with the best of intentions, than from the deviation from them with the intent to mislead; third, the raft of knee-jerk corporate governance mechanisms imposed following the recent corporate shenanigans are more directed at appearances than rectifying malpractice; and fourth, there is increasing evidence that the current group structures in which corporate activities are arranged are incapable of effective regulation. Here those themes are explained, explored, and illustrated, within the framework of an agenda for true, effective reform.
Prologue
Gilding the corporate lily
1. Indecent disclosure
omitted factor in unexpected failure?
2. Independence
a misplaced quest for honesty
3. Governance overload
a contestable strategy
4. A most peculiar practice
accounting under scrutiny
5. A most peculiar practice
auditing under the microscope
6. The sound of one hand clapping
7. Commerce without conscience
group enterprise or separate legal entity?
8. Groupthink
fact or fiction?
9. An alternate group therapy to consolidation accounting
10. Patching
past, present, prospect
Notes
Bibliography
Index.