Intermediate Accounting (16th Edition)

Published by Wiley
ISBN 10: 1118743202
ISBN 13: 978-1-11874-320-1

Chapter 1 - Financial Accounting and Accounting Standards - Review and Practice - Concepts For Analysis - Page 27: CA1-16

Answer

a. A member of Congress (a component of government) is among the user groups allowed to contribute to accounting standards. The member also represents constituents who could be affected economically due to the standards. b. Capital markets would be destabilized should they be made to comply with standards created on the whims of politicians. Such standards would serve the politicians' interests, not the interests of other users. The government has partisan interests. Therefore, it may ignore research during the process of setting standards. Furthermore, a conceptual framework that is founded on politics would not be stable. A new government would require it to be changed so that it can fit its agenda and economic ideologies. Consequently, changing the framework depending on the day's politics would deny capital markets the required stability.  

Work Step by Step

a. A member of Congress (a component of government) is among the user groups allowed to contribute to accounting standards. The member also represents constituents who could be affected economically due to the standards. b. Capital markets would be destabilized should they be made to comply with standards created on the whims of politicians. Such standards would serve the politicians' interests, not the interests of other users. The government has partisan interests. Therefore, it may ignore research during the process of setting standards. Furthermore, a conceptual framework that is founded on politics would not be stable. A new government would require it to be changed so that it can fit its agenda and economic ideologies. Consequently, changing the framework depending on the day's politics would deny capital markets the required stability.  
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