Orange County Choppers ...
Nice to know that someone agrees!
Last November, 2005, I wrote a page on the Orange County Choppers business that you can watch on the Discovery Channel. Mark Christian wrote to me today to tell me that he had put a link to that page in
his Blog.
Mark's article is well worth a read as he also agrees that the motor bike making maniacs over at OCC are fascinating from a business point of view let alone from the custom made motor bike point of view.
Great minds ...
Duncan Williamson
Bluff your way
Bluff your way in life?It certainly seems that persistence pays off. Recntly a new programme has appeared on TV:
“Trust Me, I’m an Economist” starring Tim Harford.
How did Tim manage to convince the BBC to run this programme?
Interestingly Tim writes:
“
But I bluffed my way past the front door of a production company called Tiger Aspect, which makes successful children’s cartoons and sitcoms but is not famous for economic analysis. Then it bluffed its way past the front door of the BBC.”Financial Times August 4th 2006
Surely not?
Apparently so because according to the Tiger Aspect site:
http://www.tigeraspect.co.uk/“Please note: We do not accept unsolicited scripts, programme formats or showreels.”So how does one get round this?
I spoke to Tiger Aspect – they advised me to ring back and put on a very posh accent…
…I’m sure there’s more to it than that. Tim Harford has an impressive background and I especially like his
Lazy WayChris Sivewright
Dragons' Den
Have you watched the Dragons' Den yet? Good stuff: why not go over to
our new FORUM where you can debate the programme.
I think there's a lot of really useful things to think about in this programme.
More than that, here's a page of excellent sources for business people from the DD section of the BBC web site:
guidance pageDuncan Williamson
What's this all about?
Now, what do you think this is referring to?
"When ______ introduced its __________ in 1961, not only was it the __________________ in the world, but it also heralded a golden age of British design, says Jeremy Aynsley, a professor at the Royal College of Art. Reflected in its lines, he says, was the optimism of a country finally recovering from the wounds of the second world war.
So, what's the product? ... go on, use the comment link to suggest an answer.
Do real people really talk like that?
Duncan Williamson
Charts from the Bank of England
The Bank of England's latest Inflation Report (August 2006) has just been published: it's
here. Of course,e veryone should read that report for its content but I want to demonstrate just a few of the charts and graphs that the Bank uses these days.
The graphics that follow are taken from the August 2006 Inflation Report from the Bank and are largely presented without comment. I am showing them, though, for you to see a variety of ways in which you can present information in a graphical format.
I have included the Chart 5.6 to show that scales sometimes need to be broken: in this case the horizontal axis. There are people in the world of business studies and accounting who think that observing the proper rules of charting and graphing are a luxury: here at OxBowBusiness we don't!
Duncan Williamson
Accounting Standards ... why?
I received a heartfelt plea from Amber the other day and thought you'd like to see what I said in reply.
Firstly the question:
Hi there
My name is Amber and I am studying Financial accounting this semester and admittedly I find it confusing to say the least. I was wondering if I could get your opinion on why there is a need for so much regulation? If we already have the conceptual framework and the "true and fair view" provision why do we need the rest? I guess I'm trying to understand it all while wishing it didnt all exist!!! : ) Look forward to hearing from you
Kind regards, Amber.
Now my response.
Dear Amber,
There are many accountants who think that we don't need all of these financial reporting standards. There are now hundreds of them world wide: British, International, American, French ...
However, since we are still suffering from major financial scandals in spite of all of these standards, there are many more accountants and enforcement officials who think they are both vital and not yet enough.
What about harmonising standards? Why does each country or region have its own standards? Well, that's how they came to be developed. Until the International standards came along. The European Union has harmonised standards by insisting that all listed companies in the EU present their financial reports according to IFRS from 1st January 2005 and onwards. There are also projects to harmonise American and International standards but that is such a difficult problem that I think it will never really be done. Just go to
www.fasb.org to see the number and range of American standards and then compare them with
www.iasb.org.uk to see how many American standards there are relative to the number of IFRS.
UK and International standards are being very closely harmonised now.
The biggest problem I think that we face is the accountant who is suffering from the must beat or must find a loophole syndrome: accountants who either don't understand the standards or are looking for a way to hide or twist something. They then find a way of hiding and twisting: possibly true and fair but in breach of substance over form ... Or vice versa ... Or something else entirely.
When the ASB from the UK produced its own Framework, it was labelled as a complete waste of time and as too little and too late and as a mere jumble of words. The IASB and the FASB produced their own frameworks a long time before the ASB and what is wrong with the ASB's version is that it was really just a copy of the other two. The FASB was the original, I think and the IASB copied that too, at least in part.
Define true and fair view and then ask me to do the same. Then ask 1,000 accountants to do that. Then ask 1,000 shareholders what they mean by true and fair ... It will turn into a nightmare. That shouldn't stop us trying, of course; but there are problems with trying to define such things. The most important thing is that the standard setters are trying to set standards that accountants can all agree with and apply. No standard is set in stone, however, so any definition and description is available to be changed. Indeed, UK standards on inflation accounting ... Don't exist any more ... Ditched ... No one liked them and then inflation went away so we don't need one any more. The IASB did the same, essentially; and they just have a standard for hyper inflation.
I think one of the real problems is that the standrds are incomprehensible to a lot of people. They are written in some of the of astonishingly arcane language you could ever wish to come across. The Boards tend not to illustrate everything with meaningful examples. Examples that are given are often presented by accountants or academics who seem either not to understand what they are writing about or who can't effectively communicate what they are trying to say.
Conclusion? Sorry, Amber, these standards are here to stay.
Sorry
Best wishes
Duncan Williamson
