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1、本科毕业论文（设计） 外 文 翻 译外文出处 Bank Asset/Liability Management,2009(10):7-8 外文作者 Orlando Hanselman 原文：原文：Full Fair Value Accounting: Its Time Has ComeExecutive Summary: It is time to evaluate fair value accounting objectively by returning to the conceptual roots of our modern accounting framework and debunk
2、ing certain false doctrines. Analyzing the conceptual integrity of fair value compared to historic cost accounting demonstrates the clear superiority of fair value measurement and reporting. True capital adequacy can only be ascertained on a risk-adjusted basis. The starting point for such needed an
3、d sound risk-adjustment is reflecting changes in market values for all assets and liabilities to determine the economic value of equity. Full fair value accounting with appropriately detailed disclosures should be required now for all reporting entities and for all assets and liabilities. Such a req
4、uirement also would result in equity stated on a full fair value basis. Historical cost should be properly relegated to no more than footnote disclosure. Full fair valueaccounting sharpens investor and management focus on long-term, risk-adjusted organizational performance and the optimization of ec
5、onomic value of equity. Full fair value accountingits time has come!Fair value accounting, once a subject relegated for discussion by the green eyeshade and the pocket protector crowd, has moved from accounting cubicles to Main Street and the political power corridors of America. Much has recently b
6、een written about it. Much conversation has been held. The issue has taken on partisan tones with both staunch proponents and determined, well funded opponents raising up their voices. To sort through this rhetoric it is time to look at fair value accounting objectively by returning to the conceptua
7、l roots of our modern accounting framework and debunking certain false doctrines espoused by fair value accounting critics. As this analysis will substantiate,now is the time for full fair value accounting.Fair value accounting is not a new concept or recent phenomena:“Asset valuations (for financia
8、l institutions) were at fair market value. It was not until 1938 that the Federal Reserve forced the other regulators to accede to historic cost accounting for banks assets. The 1938accounting change was made to encourage new lending and to enable private investors to acquire failed banks assets fro
9、m the federal authorities without immediate write downs of their value.” (Source: “Stress Testing the Banks” by Walker F. Todd, The Institutional Risk Analyst, February 24, 2009).Earnest exploration of fair value accounting began in the early 1980s, long before it became a force recognized by Main S
10、treet and Washington. Elements of fair value accounting slowly entered into generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) as promulgated by the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”). Lower-of-cost or market accounting became an accepted practice. Write down to market of permanently
11、impaired assets emerged. Investment accounting based upon managements intent was instituted with three separate portfolios and treatments: held-to-maturity; held for sale; trading. Statement of Financial Accounting Standards(“SFAS”) #159 now allows a one-time management election that is irrevocable
12、wherein the reporting entity can choose to use fair value accounting for selected financial assets or liabilities. The result of this piecemeal approach has been a patch-work quilt of financial statement user confusion and reporting inconsistency depraved of conceptual integrity and heavily determin
13、ed by management intent or election.During the early days of closed back room discussion, fair value accounting proponents suggested that movement from an historical cost standard to a market based approach would achieve at least five key financial reporting advantages:Enhance relevance and transpar
14、ency; Reduce rule complexity; Lower earnings volatility; Enhance consistency and comparability;Converge U.S. accounting standards with emerging international accounting standards.As U.S. companies compete in an interdependent global economy and battle to costeffectively obtain equity and debt fundin
15、g, these purported advantages assume a greatersense of urgency and magnitude.Historical cost accounting, where an asset is valued at the time of acquisition basedupon consideration tendered, is thought to have begun in the days of the ancientRomans. Increasingly this longstanding accounting method i
16、s viewed as irrelevant andmisleading. Depreciation rules, used to subsequently reduce asset values by one of many standardized and capricious methods to approximate the expiration of usefulness,are understood to be crude estimations which provide only minor conceptual insightrelated to the underlying and changing value of an asset with passing time. A 1983 audit client pointed out this illogic to me by valuing their fixed assets using a self-determined
