Professor Elam

Now even the supposedly conservative Swiss Banks are writing down ‘assets.’  I urged the Intermed II class to read the assignments on derivatives and options over the break. Here is another example of a brokerage firm / investment bank / just what are you doing? firm writing down ‘assets.’ In principles of accounting we told you that Asets = Liab + Equity. Hmmm, maybe not when the assets have to be moved to the liability side and then we need an injection from Dubai to make the equation balance as Merrill is doing.  Pricing such ‘assets’ will be a major challenge for accountants.