Does a pension plan that takes more investment risk become better funded? Both the current accounting standards and the proposed revisions answer yes, while economic theory and real-world financial markets say no. Until and unless this central question is answered correctly, both the size of pension liabilities and the steps that could address them will be misunderstood.

Few recognize just how troubled this government agency really is. When measured against the accounting system used by private mortgage insurers, the FHA is deeply insolvent, with a capital shortfall of tens of billions of dollars. If it were a private firm, state regulators would immediately shut it down. 

The Committee is concerned about increasing interference with independent accounting standard setting and recommends separating accounting standard setting and financial reporting from measuring regulatory capital for financial institutions.

The Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee urges theSEC to adopt a rule as soon as possible and no later than April 30, 2008 that will give all issuers a choice between using IFRSor U.S. GAAP for their financial statements.

If U.S. companies stated their accounts abroadusing International Financial Reporting Standards, they would incur significant additional costs to issue their securities in Europe.

The notion that accounting standards are purely objective matters for "experts" is simply wrong.

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) uses lax accounting standards that obscure the fact that it is deeply insolvent, with a looming shortfall of tens of billions of dollars that American taxpayers will have to make up.

On April 13, 2012, the US Department of the Treasury released new cost estimates for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Looking principally at actual and projected contractual cash flows, the document concludes that: "Overall, the government is now expected to at least break even on its financial stability programs and may realize a positive return."