Feds as accountants. A Republican and a Democrat have proposed a new bill (H.R. 1349) to create a Federal Accounting Oversight Board to do things exactly the way the Feds think they should be done in the financial markets.
The board would include the Treasury Secretary and the chairmen of the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. Currently only the SEC plays a role in how GAAP applies to financial markets, the congressmen pointed out. The board would approve the standards set by the independent Financial Accounting Standards Board.
This bill would give the government a framework for liberalizing GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles), which means that bureaucrats will have the power to “adjust” GAAP on an “as needed” basis in order to “take into consideration different types of assets and different types of market conditions.” Indeed, by getting FASB (Financial Accounting Standards Board) out of the way, the feds will have toppled the last remaining barrier that stands between them and their complete takeover of the financial industry.
