...What role did the accounting profession play in the recent subprime mortgage crisis? The accounting professions played a critical role, and somehow were pointed fingers at mostly, in the recent subprime mortgage crisis. According to Chapter 1 of our book, the accounting professions analyze financial statements, which provide information that is relevant to make rational investment, credit decisions, and other informed judgments to users such as, investors, creditors, and financial advisors. However, accountants and auditors were not the only ones liable here. The subprime crisis was a big disarray, and everyone starting from the lenders, to the homebuyers, and to the investors had got to have a share to the blame. The lenders should be responsible for it because they were the ones who loaned monies to people with poor credit. The homebuyers should be as guilty as well for buying houses that they could hardly afford. Finally, the investors were to be held accountable since they were purchasing collateralized debt obligation (CDO) at low premiums instead of taking the rating at face value. Nonetheless, things happen – no one could have predicted the crisis, and sometimes it is inevitable. Yet, I believe the accounting professions could have prevented it because their job is to be independent, objective, competent, and most especially truthful with the information they evaluate. What should (could) they have done differently? Like I said above, the subprime crisis...
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...Week I: Discussion Question What role did the Accounting profession play in the recent sub prime mortgage crisis? What could they have done differently? In the beginning of this decade, the US interest rates were at record lows, subprime lending accounted for 80% of loans being issued (Senator Dodd: Create, Sustain, Preserve, and Protect the American Dream of Home Ownership, 2007). In order to lore new borrowers, banks more often than not offered adjustable rate mortgages to their clients which provided them with lower payments compared to those offered by traditional mortgages. As subprime lending grew exponentially, investment firms and banks saw an opportunity to take advantage of the boom by securitizing the loans into new investment vehicles called Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDO)(Evans & Jain, 2010). As organizations grew their investments in CDOs, accounting professionals at these institutions played a role in misleading investors about their organization’s risks and financial health. As a way to minimize risk to their organizations, accounting professionals at a number of banks and investment firms used creative accounting maneuvers to move CDOs to Qualified Special Purpose Entities (QSPE). In doing so, they removed the liability of these assets from their organization’s books misleading investors about their organization’s health (Chasan, 2008). This kind of practice was used by several organizations including Citigroup Inc. which settled...
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...What role did the accounting profession play in the recent subprime mortgage crisis? What could they have done differently? In all businesses, accounting is the backbone that holds them together. In stating this, the demise of the subprime mortgage industry lies within the bad practices of mortgage companies, banks and financial institutions. Allowing the lending of billions of dollars to non-credit worthy individuals was a disaster waiting to happen. During the 1980’s the subprime market comprised of approximately 5% loans and by 2005 they were at a record-breaking 20%. The decisions that allowed the increase of so many subprime loans have put this country in financial turmoil. The Subprime loan market allowed lenders to make loans to non-credit worthy borrowers, which included no-credit or bad credit individuals and those with stated income. These loans were attractive to a vast number of people because it was an offer borrowers couldn’t refuse. The little to no credit requirements and Interest-only and Adjustable-rate loans made borrowers believe they could live the American dream. The failure of risk management in these cases compromised the securitization of loans and debt obligations. The inability and/or lack of accounting principles have contributed to this country’s financial crisis, not to mention the global impact from defaulting on subprime loans. These issues still play an important role of the finance industry today. Now that the government has had to step...
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...What role did the Accounting profession play in the recent subprime mortgage crisis? What could they have done differently? There were many factors that led to the subprime mortgage crisis; low interest rates, greedy asset managers, and a booming housing market, to name a few. None were, in my opinion, more responsible for the crisis than the banks (lenders) and buyers (borrower). The banks approved loans for buyers who, one could not afford the loan, nor did not have the credit history to get the loan. Subprime borrowers were tricked into innovative mortgage products such as, 12/24 month adjustable-rate mortgages, interest-only loans, piggy-bank and the notorious negative amortization loans (Denning, 2011). These loans proved to be the catalyst that fueled the crisis in 2006. Accounting professionals played a role in the crisis, however, I feel that it was a small one. I say small due to the fact that, while they are professionals, they are still people. People with families, bills, and other obligations. I think that the pressure of having an employer pay them more because they are making more was a deciding factor for not blowing the whistle on questionable financial practices. The text speaks of ethics and unqualified, or clean opinions. “An unqualified opinion is not a clean bill of health about either the current financial condition or future prospects of the entity”. Knowing this we can surmise then even if the accounting professional did raise the flag on the risky...
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...pResented by the society of ActuARies, the cAsuAlty ActuARiAl society And the cAnAdiAn institute of ActuARies Risk Management: The Current Financial Crisis, Lessons Learned and Future Implications Copyright 2008 by the Society of Actuaries. R I s k M a n a g e M e n T: the current financial crisis, lessons learned and future implications introduction the current financial crisis presents a case study of a “financial tsunami” (as former federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan recently called it) on what can go wrong. its ramifications are far-reaching and the lessons learned will be embedded in risk management practices for years to come. As one of the premier enterprise risk professions in practice today, the actuarial profession is sharing its substantial insight into what went wrong and the implications for the future. on behalf of the society of Actuaries, the casualty Actuarial society and the canadian institute of Actuaries, we are pleased to provide a series of essays on Risk Management: The Current Financial Crisis, Lessons Learned and Future Implications. this e-book is the result of a call for essays on the subject coordinated by the following groups: • • • • The Joint Risk Management Section of the Society of Actuaries, Casualty Actuarial Society and Canadian institute of Actuaries The Investment Section of the Society of Actuaries International Network of Actuarial Risk Managers Enterprise Risk Management Institute International ...
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...09-093 July 22, 2009 The Global Financial Crisis of 2008 – 2009: The Role of Greed, Fear and Oligarchs Cate Reavis Free enterprise is always the right answer. The problem with it is that it ignores the human element. It does not take into account the complexities of human behavior. 1 —Andrew Lo, Professor of Finance, MIT Sloan School of Management The problem in the financial sector today is not that a given firm might have enough market share to influence prices; it is that one firm or a small set of interconnected firms, by failing, can bring down the economy. 2 —Simon Johnson, Professor of Entrepreneurship, MIT Sloan School of Management, Former Chief Economist, IMF On October 9, 2007 the Dow Jones Industrial Average set a record by closing at 14,047. One year later, the Dow was just above 8,000, after dropping 21% in the first nine days of October 2008. Major stock markets in other countries had plunged alongside the Dow. Credit markets were nearing paralysis. Companies began to lay off workers in droves and were forced to put off capital investments. Individual consumers were being denied loans for mortgages and college tuitions. After the nine day U.S. stock market plunge, the head of the International Monetary Fund had some sobering words: “Intensifying solvency concerns about a number of the largest U.S.-based and European financial institutions have pushed the global financial system to the brink of systemic meltdown.” 3 1 2 3 Interview with the case writer...
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...Enablers of Exuberance Jennifer S. Taub Sept. 4, 2009 DISCUSSION DRAFT Enablers of Exuberance: Legal Acts and Omissions that Facilitated the Global Financial Crisis Jennifer S. Taub1 I. Introduction This paper explores certain legal acts and omissions that facilitated the over-leveraging and near collapse of the global financial system. These ―Legal Enablers‖ fostered the boom that enriched a class of financial intermediaries who followed a storied tradition of gambling away ―other people‘s money.‖2 These mechanisms also made the pain of the bust disproportionately felt by the middle class and poor while shielding the middlemen who created the problems. These legal Enablers permitted the growth of a shadow banking system, without investment limits, transparency or government oversight. In the shadows grew a variety of highly leveraged private investment pools, undercapitalized conduits of securitized loans and speculation in complex credit derivatives. The rationale for allowing this unregulated, parallel system was that it helped to create innovation and provide liquidity. The conventional wisdom was that any risks associated with a hands-off approach could be managed by the ―invisible hand‖3 of the market. In other words, instead of public police, it relied upon private gatekeepers. A legal framework including legislation, rules and court decisions supported this system. This legal structure depended upon corporate managers, counterparties, ―sophisticated investors‖ and the...
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...7 8 - 0 - 3 9 3 - 0 7 1 0 1 - 6 W USA $24.95 CAN. $27.50 hat better guide could we have to the 2008 financial crisis and its resolution than our newest Nobel Laureate in Economics, the prolific columnist and author Paul Krugman? In his prescient 1999 classic, The Return of Depression Economics, Krugman surveyed the economic crises that had swept across Asia and Latin America and pointed out that they were a warning for all of us: like diseases that have become resistant to antibiotics, the economic maladies that caused the Great Depression were making a comeback. In the years that followed, as Wall Street boomed and financial wheeler-dealers made vast profits, the international crises of the 1990s faded from memory. But now depression economics has come to America. When the great housing bubble of the mid-2000s burst, the U.S. financial system proved as vulnerable as those of developing countries caught up in earlier crises—and a replay of the 1930s seems all too possible. In this new, greatly updated edition of The Return of Depression Economics, Krugman shows how the failure of regulation to keep pace with an increasingly out-of-control financial system set the United States and the world up for the greatest financial crisis since the 1930s. He also lays out the steps that must be taken to contain the crisis and turn around a world economy sliding into a deep recession. Brilliantly crafted in Krugman's trademark style—lucid, lively...
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...THE GREAT RECESSION Since publication of Robert L. Hetzel’s he Monetary Policy of the Federal Reserve (Cambridge University Press, 2008), the intellectual consensus that had characterized macroeconomics has disappeared. hat consensus emphasized eicient markets, rational expectations, and the eicacy of the price system in assuring macroeconomic stability. he 2008–2009 recession not only destroyed the professional consensus about the kinds of models required to understand cyclical luctuations but also revived the credit-cycle or asset-bubble explanations of recession that dominated thinking in the nineteenth century and irst half of the twentieth century. hese “market-disorder” views emphasize excessive risk taking in inancial markets and the need for government regulation. he present book argues for the alternative “monetary-disorder” view of recessions. A review of cyclical instability over the last two centuries places the 2008–2009 recession in the monetary-disorder tradition, which focuses on the monetary instability created by central banks rather than on a boom-bust cycle in inancial markets. Robert L. Hetzel is Senior Economist and Research Advisor in the Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, where he participates in debates over monetary policy and prepares the bank’s president for meetings of the Federal Open Market Committee. Dr. Hetzel’s research on monetary policy and the history of central banking has appeared in publications...
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...Sixth Edition INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT Cheol S. Eun Bruce G. Resnick International Financial Management Sixth Edition The McGraw-Hill/Irwin Series in Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate Stephen A. Ross Franco Modigliani Professor of Finance and Economics Sloan School of Management Massachusetts Institute of Technology Consulting Editor FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT Adair Excel Applications for Corporate Finance First Edition Block, Hirt, and Danielsen Foundations of Financial Management Fourteenth Edition Brealey, Myers, and Allen Principles of Corporate Finance Tenth Edition Brealey, Myers, and Allen Principles of Corporate Finance, Concise Second Edition Brealey, Myers, and Marcus Fundamentals of Corporate Finance Sixth Edition Brooks FinGame Online 5.0 Bruner Case Studies in Finance: Managing for Corporate Value Creation Sixth Edition Chew The New Corporate Finance: Where Theory Meets Practice Third Edition Cornett, Adair, and Nofsinger Finance: Applications and Theory First Edition Cornett, Adair, and Nofsinger Finance: M Book First Edition DeMello Cases in Finance Second Edition Grinblatt (editor) Stephen A. Ross, Mentor: Influence through Generations Grinblatt and Titman Financial Markets and Corporate Strategy Second Edition Higgins Analysis for Financial Management Ninth Edition Kellison Theory of Interest Third Edition Kester, Ruback, and Tufano Case Problems in Finance Twelfth Edition Ross, Westerfield, and Jaffe Corporate Finance Ninth Edition...
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...A COMPARISON BETWEEN ISLAMIC AND TRADITIONAL BANKS: PRE AND POST THE 2008 FINANCIAL CRISIS Mohamed Hashem Rashwan1 The British University in Egypt ABSTRACT This study tests the efficiency and profitability of banks that belongs to two different sectors: a) Islamic Banks (IBs) and b) Traditional Banks (TBs). The study concentrates on the pre and post 2008 financial crisis with an aim to test if there are any significant differences in performance between the two sectors. The study applies the MANOVA techniques to analyze the financial secondary data for only publicly traded banks in the same region. The findings of the study show that there is a significant difference between the two sectors in 2007 and 2009 and there are no significant differences in 2008, which indicates the effect of the crisis on both sectors. IBs outperform TBs in 2007 and TBs outperform IBs in 2009. This result indicates the spread of the crisis to the real economy where IBs usually operate. INTRODUCTION Forty years ago Islamic Finance was virtually an unknown system; interestingly it has expanded to become a distinctive and fast growing segment of the International Financials markets. With a growth rate that ranges from 15% to 20% (EL- Qoroshy 2005). Islamic Finance in general and Islamic banking in specific become main players in the financial world. According to the IMF survey (2010) the total capital managed under Islamic Finance systems was estimated to be $820 billion at the end of 2008. More than...
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...aforementioned purposes? a. By establishing confidence in the enforcement of laws b. Providing a certain degree of predictability as to what will happen if the laws are violated 4. If any society is to survive, its citizens must be able to determine What is legally right and wrong and be able to determine what sanctions may be imposed on them if they commit wrongful acts 5. Why should you care about the law? a. The law affects virtually ALL business transactions and activities, including: i. Hiring and firing ii. Workplace safety iii. Manufacturing, distributing & marketing of products iv. Financing v. Accounting & ethics and vi. Many other areas as well 6. You are the owner of a company called Compudata – a computer software & systems company. You receive an inquiry from BMI, Inc. regarding your company’s various services. a. What are some of the legal issues you need to consider? i. How do we enter into a contract Contracts ii. What happens if BMI breaches Remedies iii. How do we protect our product IP iv. Are we dealing with the right person Agency v. What happens if we have a dispute Litigation vi. What happens if our products hurts someone Product Liability vii. Does making our product impact the environment Environmental Law...
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...Butterworth-Heinemann is an imprint of Elsevier Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP, UK 30 Corporate Drive, Suite 400, Burlington, MA 01803, USA First edition 2009 Copyright © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier’s Science & Technology Rights Department in Oxford, UK: phone (144) (0) 1865 843830; fax (144) (0) 1865 853333; email: permissions@elsevier.com. Alternatively you can submit your request online by visiting the Elsevier web site at http://elsevier.com/locate/permissions, and selecting Obtaining permission to use Elsevier material Notice No responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas contained in the material herein. Because of rapid advances in the medical sciences, in particular, independent verification of diagnoses and drug dosages should be made. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress ISBN–13:...
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...CORPORATE FINANCE T H IRD E DIT ION JONATHAN BERK STANFORD UNIVERSITY PETER D E MARZO STANFORD UNIVERSITY Boston Columbus Indianapolis New York San Francisco Upper Saddle River Amsterdam Cape Town Dubai London Madrid Milan Munich Paris Montreal Toronto Delhi Mexico City Sao Paulo Sydney Hong Kong Seoul Singapore Taipei Tokyo To Rebecca, Natasha, and Hannah, for the love and for being there —J. B. To Kaui, Pono, Koa, and Kai, for all the love and laughter —P. D. Editor in Chief: Donna Battista Acquisitions Editor: Katie Rowland Executive Development Editor: Rebecca Ferris-Caruso Editorial Project Manager: Emily Biberger Managing Editor: Jeff Holcomb Senior Production Project Manager: Nancy Freihofer Senior Manufacturing Buyer: Carol Melville Cover Designer: Jonathan Boylan Cover Photo: Nikreates/Alamy Media Director: Susan Schoenberg Content Lead, MyFinanceLab: Miguel Leonarte Executive Media Producer: Melissa Honig Project Management and Text Design: Gillian Hall, The Aardvark Group Composition and Artwork: Laserwords Printer/Binder: R.R. Donnelley/Jefferson City Cover Printer: Lehigh Phoenix Text Font: Adobe Garamond Credits and acknowledgments borrowed from other sources and reproduced, with permission, in this textbook appear on the appropriate page within text and on this copyright page. Credits: Cover: Sculpture in photo: Detail of Flamingo (1973), Alexander Calder. Installed in Federal Plaza, Chicago. Sheet metal and paint, 1615.4 x 1828.8 x 731...
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...CORPORATE FINANCE T H IRD E DIT ION JONATHAN BERK STANFORD UNIVERSITY PETER D E MARZO STANFORD UNIVERSITY Boston Columbus Indianapolis New York San Francisco Upper Saddle River Amsterdam Cape Town Dubai London Madrid Milan Munich Paris Montreal Toronto Delhi Mexico City Sao Paulo Sydney Hong Kong Seoul Singapore Taipei Tokyo To Rebecca, Natasha, and Hannah, for the love and for being there —J. B. To Kaui, Pono, Koa, and Kai, for all the love and laughter —P. D. Editor in Chief: Donna Battista Acquisitions Editor: Katie Rowland Executive Development Editor: Rebecca Ferris-Caruso Editorial Project Manager: Emily Biberger Managing Editor: Jeff Holcomb Senior Production Project Manager: Nancy Freihofer Senior Manufacturing Buyer: Carol Melville Cover Designer: Jonathan Boylan Cover Photo: Nikreates/Alamy Media Director: Susan Schoenberg Content Lead, MyFinanceLab: Miguel Leonarte Executive Media Producer: Melissa Honig Project Management and Text Design: Gillian Hall, The Aardvark Group Composition and Artwork: Laserwords Printer/Binder: R.R. Donnelley/Jefferson City Cover Printer: Lehigh Phoenix Text Font: Adobe Garamond Credits and acknowledgments borrowed from other sources and reproduced, with permission, in this textbook appear on the appropriate page within text and on this copyright page. Credits: Cover: Sculpture in photo: Detail of Flamingo (1973), Alexander Calder. Installed in Federal Plaza, Chicago. Sheet metal and paint, 1615.4 x 1828.8 x 731...
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