Brannen in Brief

The Treasury is pulling out all the stops to provide relief to companies facing high interest rates for short-term credit; and thanks to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) large multinationals have an additional weapon in the battle for short-term cash.

The $700 billion bailout package approved by Congress carries executive compensation limits for executives of the companies that benefit from the Treasury's program, and that is sparking debate among compensation experts.

Battle lines are forming over the fate of FAS 157, the "fair value" or mark-to-market accounting rule.

The Treasury Department's long awaited recommendations for changes in the audit industry address audit firm structure and finances, the competitive landscape for the firms, and human capital considerations.

The accounting scandals that brought Enron down, creating a crisis of confidence among investors that resulted in Sarbanes-Oxley, may pale in comparison to the fallout from the government's bailout of financial companies.

Shareholder activists who have fought long and hard against financial excess for chief executives are ratcheting up the noise level.

Money market funds have always provided refuge from the storm in a market crisis, but CFOs who have fiduciary responsibility for their company’s 401(k) plan may be questioning the safety of their plan’s money market fund these days.

Successful implementers tended to start the process early, paid close attention to important accounting issues and emphasized good project and change management.

The Department of Labor (DOL) has been dismissing whistleblower cases involving employees of subsidiaries of public companies because of broad language used by the statute.

The SEC's proposed road map for a move to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) by U.S. issuers by 2014 is so sweeping that some critics are calling it the accountants' equivalent of Y2K.