FASB, Not Dozin' on Pozen Rec's, Announces Post-Implementation Review Process; FAF Announces Appointments

Last week the Financial Accounting Foundation or FAF, which oversees the Financial Accounting Standards Board, announced the launch of a post-implementation review process. This action follows, in part, on a recommendation made by the SEC's Committee on Improvements to Financial Reporting (CIFiR) aka the "Pozen Committee" - so named in honor of its chair, Bob Pozen. The recommendation was one of many recommendations aimed mainly at the SEC, but also at FASB and the PCAOB, in the final CIFiR report issued in August, 2008. (See, e.g. our previous posts: FASB's Anniversary Present to CIFiR, and SEC Ready To Roll With All Five Commissioners In Place; Pozen Committee Report Issued. )

As previously announced in July, Mark Schroeder, a recently retired senior partner at Deloitte & Touche LLP, was hired by the FAF as post-implementation review leader, assuming responsibility for the development, implementation, and management of the post-implementation review of standards and other authoritative pronouncements issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB).

FAF Appoints Terri Polley Pres. & CEO, Four New Trustees Named
In other news emanating from last week's FAF meeting, the FAF announced that Terri Polley has been named President and CEO of the FAF, the first time an officer with that title has been appointed to the FAF.

Additionally, the FAF announced the appointment of four new members: John Davidson of Tyco International, Stephen R. Howe, Jr. of Ernst & Young, Mack Lawhon, of Weaver, LLP, and Mary S. Stone, of the University of Alabama. All members of the FAF serve in their personal capacity; Davidson and Stone are also members of FEI.

FASB Updates Private Cos.; Next Blue Ribbon Panel Mtg Dec. 10

Earlier today, the Financial Accounting Standards Board posted "FASB Update: Private Company Edition." This update, one of a series of updates for investors, private companies, and others published periodically by FASB, provides a detailed (and kudos for plain English!) update on three major proposals (Exposure Drafts) on which FASB is seeking comment from constitutents: (1) financial instruments, (2) revenue recognition and (3) leases.

The update also includes links to useful information for private companies (and others) on FASB's website.

Blue Ribbon Panel on Private Co's Will Meet Dec. 10
Separately, the next meeting of the Blue Ribbon Committee on Private Co Standard Setting will take place on Dec. 10. Additional information on the Blue Ribbon Committee, sponsored jointly by the Financial Accounting Foundation (which oversees FASB), the American Institute of CPAs, and the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy, will take place on Dec. 10 at
FAF HQ in Norwalk, CT.

COSO Launches Project To Modernize 1992 Internal Control Framework

Earlier today, the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) announced it has launched a project to moderize its landmark Internal Control-Integrated Framework.

The framework, first published in 1992, has been supplemented by various publications since that time, including publications geared toward small public companies, and on monitoring of internal controls.

PwC To Lead Project, Under Advisory Team Of COSO Board Members, Experts
Audit firm PwC has been selected to coordinate this project, under the guidance of an advisory committee consisting of COSO board members and other experts.

COSO's founding sponsoring organizations include FEI, the AICPA, IIA, IMA, and AAA.

Target Completion Date: 2012
According to COSO's press release, “The initiative is expected to culminate in an updated internal control framework publication in 2012, the 20th anniversary of the initial Framework.

FEI To Form Ad Hoc Task Force To Support Participation On COSO Project
Consistent with past COSO projects, FEI will be forming an interdisciplinary task force to review drafts of the COSO project, draft comment letters, and support FEI’s COSO board member- FEI President and CEO Marie Hollein, and the chair of the FEI task force (to be named), who will serve with Marie on the COSO Project Advisory Committee, with representatives of each of COSO’s sponsoring organizations. FEI members interested in serving on this ad hoc task force, please contact me at eorenstein@financialexecutives.org. Nonmembers: don't forget we have a new category of membership: the Associate Member category - read more here.

Tweets Fly By At FEI CFRI, on FASB, IASB, Economy, & More

If you can't be at FEI's Current Financial Reporting Issues Conference in person today and tomorrow, where you can hear from leading board and staff members of FASB, IASB, SEC, and leading financial exec's and auditors - you can tune in virtually by following the tweets being posted under hashtag #CFRI2010. I hear there may even be an informal tweetup tonight (for those of you not attending the sold-out FEI Hall of Fame Gala) - watch for any word from the folks below by following them on twitter.

Below are a few highlights posted on twitter so far from the CFRI conference; more is likely to come in some of the below folks' and other journalists' publications tomorrow and later this week. Tomorrow's session will include a keynote by former SEC Commissioner Harvey Goldschmid, now a member of the IFRS Foundation Trustees; a Controllers Roundtable, an SEC update featuring SEC Chief Accountant Jim Kroeker and SEC Division of Corp Fin Chief Accountant Wayne Carlin, and a Q&A session with senior staff of FASB and the SEC. There are also concurrent breakout sessions at CFRI on specialized topics.


retheauditors: I always get nervous when I see guys in white shirts with pens in their pockets. #TheyAllDressTheSame #CFRI2010 about 4 hours ago via TweetDeck ...Listening to four from the Big 4 talk about financial reporting. Sam Ranzilla's @KPMG specs are super zexxy. #CFRI2010 about 4 hours ago via TweetDeck .... retheauditors: PCAOB asked all the audit firms how this Dear CFO letter will affect their audits and Ranzilla KPMG says it will. Looking at it. #CFRI2010 about 3 hours ago via TweetDeck .... My question: When SEC sent Dear CFO letter to fin inst re repurchase risk disclosures, did auditors get the letter too? #CFRI201


feiblog: Next up #CFRI2010 Hot Topics, mod.by Larry Salva Comcast; w/ Mike Gallagher PwC; Sam Ranzilla KPMG; Kevin Reilly E&Y; Jim Schnurr Deloitte.


retheauditors: The British always choose the right words: "The opprobrium is for the Fed not China for a change." ZM-B @economist #CFRI2010 about 6 hours ago via ÜberTwitter ...

Zanny Minton-Beddoes at #CFRI2010 gives a shout out to Reinhart and Rogoff and their book as a great source for understanding crisis

colleencunningh: Seidman #CFRI2010 FASB rec'd 2800 comment letters on Financial Instruments ED- most "not fan mail! " about 5 hours ago via Twitter for iPad .... colleencunningh: P&G cost est. For FASB Fin'l presentation project: Implementation: $300-500M - ongoing annual cost: $30-45M! #CFRI2010 http://myloc.me/eg6Fd



complianceweek: IASB plans exposure draft of new standards for hedging in December. #CFRI2010 about 5 hours ago via Echofon

colleencunningh: Seidman #CFRI2010 FASB priorities: Financial Instruments, Revenue Rec, Leases,Insurance about 5 hours ago via Twitter for iPad

complianceweek: So where are all the cool tweeters meeting at #CFRI2010 tomorrow? @retheauditors @colleencunnighh
1 day ago via web

Remembering BNA's Susan Webster

(L-R Francine McKenna, Edith Orenstein, Susan Webster, at FEI CFRI 2008)

This time of year, when it's CFRI season (on the eve of FEI's 29th annual Current Financial Reporting Issues Conference) I think back fondly to my first meeting with BNA Managing Editor Susan Webster.

That first meeting was over coffee after I finished working the registration desk the eve of CFRI 2007. I remember discussing with Susan at that first informal meeting not only current events of the day (in the world of accounting standard-setting and the regulatory environment) but also sharing stories about other common threads in our lives, including the challenges and joys of having teens and tweens, the advent of Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus, and the use of social networks and technology by our generation vis-a-vis that of our children.

Our working relationship grew, albeit virtually, as I reached out to Susan for contacts/guidance on seeking permission to link to some of BNA's outstanding - indeed, exceptional - reporting, as I was a subscriber to BNA's Daily Report for Executives. She was very helpful in getting me in touch with the right people to be granted permission on occassion to reprint/post such material on our website and link to it in our blog. We also shared informal views with each other from time to time on topics of interest in our separate publications.

The following year, at CFRI 2008, I had the pleasure of joining together with Francine McKenna, Managing Editor of the blog Re: The Auditors, Steve Burkholder, BNA Staff Correspondent covering the FASB beat, and Susan Webster, for an informal dinner. [I remember specifically requesting that our entire conversation be 'off the record' and it was a fascinating evening indeed.]

Susan was also a member of a panel presentation coordinated and moderated by Francine at the Maryland Association of CPAs (MACPA's) June, 2009 Business Expo. Other panelists included former FEI President and CEO Colleen Cunningham, now Global Managing Director, Finance and Accounting, at Resources Global, and Joanne O'Rourke Hindman, Special Advisor to Board Member Steven B. Harris of the PCAOB. As usual, Susan shared the depth and breadth of knowledge that comes with the access BNA Editors and Correspondents have on Capitol Hill and beyond, and she provided helpful handouts from BNA explaining complex legislative developments and regulation.

The more I got to know leading journalists like Susan Webster, Steve Burkholder, Francine McKenna, and others, like CPA Trendlines Editor and Bay Street Group President & CEO Rick Telberg, the more I became interested in enhancing my journalistic skills to improve the quality of this blog. Susan and Rick were unmatched in their willingness to have me reach out to them and provide their support and insights, for which I am deeply grateful.

When CFRI rolled around again in November 2009, Susan was not able to attend (at the time, I did not know why). As Fall turned to Winter, she shared with me confidentially that she was facing some significant health issues. I remember speaking to her in January 2010 and our conversation was pretty much business as usual, without Susan dwelling on the gravity of her health issues; in fact, as I recall, I got the feeling that she was hopeful for the future.

Thus, it was with great sadness that I learned earlier this year of her passing away from her illness. I have wanted to write about her for quite some time since then, and now that CFRI 2010 is here (the 'anniversary' of my first meeting Susan) I feel it is time to put my thoughts to paper (to the screen?), in honor of her memory and how much she contributed to my own development and that of others who have shared their remembrances of Susan below.

In addition to those whose comments appear in this post, I welcome others to post a comment with your thoughts and memories of Susan, or thoughts about how a person within your own firm or organization, or in a shared industry or area of interest, has really make a difference in the lives of members of that profession or organization, and the profession or community at large. (Our readers tend to be a shy group, but we always welcome your comments.)

Steve Burkholder, BNA
BNA Staff Correspondent Steve Burkholder, well known on the FASB beat, shares these memories of Susan Webster:

Susan had a variety of roles at BNA by the time she was forced to dive into the cold waters of accounting rulemaking several years ago. She did so with her characteristic drive - completely and with total commitment, often scouring fairly obscure sources for her "FYI" messages meant as spark plugs for stories.

Susan cared deeply about the copy that made up the new publication she piloted. Just as important, she cared very much about the reporters who produced that copy. She is missed.

The then-new BNA publication referenced by Steve above, which Susan launched, was BNA's Accounting Policy and Practice Report (APPR). She had gathered an all-star advisory board for that publication (which included a number FEI members, serving in their personal capacity, leading analysts, and others.)

Jack Ciesielski, Analyst's Accounting Observer
One member of the BNA APPR advisory board was Jack Ciesielski, owner of R.G. Associates, Inc., an investment research and portfolio management firm, and publisher of The Analyst's Accounting Observer. Ciesielski is also a member of FASB's Investors Technical Advisory Committee, and (as reported by Jesse Westbrook and Ian Katz of Bloomberg in 2009) was a rumored candidate for the position of SEC Chief Accountant prior to SEC Chairman Mary L. Schapiro's selection of Acting Chief Accountant Jim Kroeker as Chief Accountant.)

Jack shares these memories of Susan:

I met Susan as a member of a BNA advisory board. She was a thoughtful, intelligent reporter and editor: always more concerned with a thorough consideration of the facts before publishing, rather than just being first with the news. I liked her graceful demeanor and enjoyed working with her tremendously.

Denise Lugo, BNA
Denise Lugo, BNA Staff Correspondent - New York, also well known on the FASB/FAF beat, shares these thoughts regarding Susan,

Susan was an exceptional editor with an uncanny ability to view one issue from five differing dimensions (at the same time). I actually joked about this to her once. I really admired her news instinct and writing style. She was thorough, detailed--could be tough as nails but combined it with fairness and integrity. During the four years I worked with her I grew tremendously as a reporter and can say she sharpened my skills and helped make me a better reporter.

Stephen Bouvier, BNA
These days, we can't talk about FASB without talking about the IASB as well.

BNA Correspondent Stephen Bouvier, well known on the IASB/EU/CESR beat, shares:

Although Susan and I never met in person, I have enjoyed the privilege of working with her at BNA as a London-based correspondent for almost five years. I never imagined that our collaboration would end quite so abruptly and cruelly for Susan.

It was thanks to Susan and her support, encouragement and, yes, criticisms, that I was able to direct my journalism toward what was for me a whole new direction. For that I shall be eternally grateful.

What many people might not realize is the role that Susan played in transforming my attendance at standard setting meetings into something that hopefully now resembles journalism and imparts useful information.

The joy of working with her was that although she had her expectations, somehow she always had the good grace to leave sufficient space for people to deliver on them.

The one area of my work that Susan initiated was the coverage since 2007 that we
have been running on IASCF funding. In some ways it was our own private initiative, but when we eventually forced the IASCF to publish information about funding on their website, Susan went out of her way in Washington to make sure that I got the credit.

I think that was Susan through and through, really. And although we never met, I miss her.

Steven Marcy, BNA
Steve Marcy, staff editor at BNA (one of the 'three Steve's' associated with the FASB-IASB beat) remembers Susan:

She was a demanding yet fair taskmaster, who always strove to make the publication and everyone around her better, and made clear that this was her intent. In this she succeeded, and we greatly appreciated her for it. She will always be missed.

Re: The Auditors' Francine McKenna
Francine McKenna, a consultant and managing editor of the popular blog, Re: The Auditors, shares this remembrance:

I remember meeting Susan for the first time in November of 2008 at the FEI CFRI
Conference. We had dinner with Steve Burkholder at that little bar in midtown. You took a great picture of the three of us. I remember when I got the call from Denise Lugo, one of the BNA reporters a couple of months ago prior for my comments on FAS 5. That conversation resulted in a quote for me in Susan's article in BNA, in the same paragraph as Lynn Turner! What a thrill!

Susan and I met again in Washington DC the following summer for the Compliance Week Annual Conference and spoke on the phone and emailed fairly often. I was so glad to have such an experienced journalist as a friend and mentor. She was always so giving with her time and advice. I didn't call this past May when I was in DC
because my schedule was so tight that week. How to know I would never see her
again? I hadn't even known she was sick.

It's a reminder to never take friends, family and those who are special to you for granted. You never know when they'll be taken unexpectedly. I miss her presence in my life in spite of the fact we were more virtual friends than day-to-day companions.

PCAOB's Colleen Brennan
Colleen Brennan, Deputy Director, Public Affairs at the PCAOB, formerly worked with Susan at BNA. She shares, "Susan was well liked and respected by her BNA colleagues back in my time (the early 90s) as well as now."

BNA President and CEO Greg McCaffery
BNA's President and CEO, Greg McCaffery, sent the following message to BNA employees to inform them of the sad news regarding Susan in June. (Thank you to BNA's Steven Burkholder and Steven Marcy for providing this info.)

Susan Webster passed away June 21 after a brief but courageous battle against
cancer.

Susan was an amazing managing editor, moving seamlessly and effortlessly between the narrow niches of banking regulation, health care law, and accounting regulation, mastering the arcane subject matter of each. In the banking arena, she was the managing editor of Washington Financial Reports,which was later renamed BNA’s Banking Report. She was instrumental in developing Health Law Reporter,which she managed for more than ten years and which remains our most successful health care product. Moving to the accounting field, she helped to create Accounting Policy & Practice Report,where she served as managing editor until her death.

Anyone who knew Susan was impressed by her agile and curious mind, by her tenacious commitment to her publications and to maintaining high journalistic standards at BNA, and by her willingness to help out wherever needed.

She was a member, and president, of the BNA Credit Union Board of Directors, she participated in various editorial quality programs and committees, and she helped launch an editorial training program for reporters.

Susan represented the best of BNA. She will be sorely missed.

In Susan's Own Words
Of course, no one could describe the essense of Susan better than she could. Here's what she wrote in her bio for the Twitter account she set up in December, 2009 to promote the BNA Accounting Policy and Practice Report (APPR), and this is why she is missed by so many. Although her loss leaves a terrible hole that can never be filled, particularly to her family, her mentoring, influence and friendship will be remembered fondly through the work and lives of many.

Susan Webster - Bio (on Twitter, 2009)
Editor: Accounting Policy & Practice Report, policy wonkette, social media fan,
wife, mother.

FEI Membership For Government/Military Financial Exec's

In honor of Veteran's Day, I'd like to note that Financial Executives International offers a reduced membership rate to qualifying members of the government and military. As noted on our membership qualifications page, the following category is offered in addition to the categories of Executive membership, Associate membership, and Academic membership:

GOVERNMENT/MILITARY MEMBERSHIP
$195 (standard annual dues rate; no application fee)

This category is open to all senior financial executives who serve in a finance, accounting, budget, or treasury position for a local, state, or federal government agency, department, bureau or office. Applicants for this category should have direct responsibility over budgetary expenditures of at least $25 million.

On a personal level (I remind you of the disclaimer on the right side of this blog) I would also like to offer thanks to those who have served our country through government and military service, as well as those who serve with police, fire, emergency rescue and other departments and agencies who put themselves in harm's way for the sake of others.

Also in honor of this day, we repeat in this post the link to the Gratitude video (produced by The Gratitude Campaign - see also The Gratitude Campaign Blog) from our Memorial Day post in 2008. Once again thanks to Michelle Golden, author of the Golden Practices Blog, (a fellow member of AccountingWEB Bloggers' Crew, and one of the cameo avatars in a certain music video we posted earlier this year) for making us aware of the Gratitude Campaign & video via Twitter.

FASB To Focus On Disclosures of Loss Contingencies Under Current Standards, Together With SEC, PCAOB Staff

For those of you who did not get to see our updated blog post yesterday, "Bean There, Done That" - or did not see the updated version in which we added a summary of yesterday's FASB meeting, we provide that info below, since it notes a significant decision by FASB to focus - together with staff of the SEC and PCAOB - on disclosures of loss contingencies (including litigation) provided based on current accounting standards, before finalizing any changes to those standards.

As background, significant changes to the existing standard (FAS 5) had been proposed by FASB, but met with a great deal of criticism from the legal community and many in the business community, who noted concerns about potentially weakening attorney-client privilege, and potentially weakening a defendant company's position in a lawsuit - even arbitrary lawsuits, through proposed disclosures in earlier Exposure Drafts.

Concerns had also been voiced on earlier proposals about practical issues surrounding some of the proposed quantitative and qualitative disclosures, and whether some of the proposals to provide even ostensibly 'factual' information would result in 'too much information' to the extent that it would make a discussion of contingencies (particularly in relation to lawsuits) less understandable to investors, rather than more understandable. (As background, see, e.g. our post summarizing a FASB roundtable held in 2009: Disclosure is Not a Place to Try a Lawsuit, ACC Tells FASB.)

For those of you who missed our post yesterday or missed the updated version, here's a synopsis of FASB's Summary of Board Decisions reached at their Nov. 10 board meeting:

Disclosure of Certain Loss Contingencies (including Litigation): FASB staff summarized comment letters received on FASB's proposal, and identified issues for redeliberation.

Significantly, signalling a holistic look at this issue, FASB's summary adds: "The board directed the staff to work with the staffs of the SEC and PCAOB to understand their efforts in addressing investor concerns about the disclosure of certain loss contingency through increased focus on compliance with existing rules. The Board also directed the staff to review filings for the 2010 calendar year-end reporting cycle to determine if those efforts have resulted in improved disclosures about loss contingences." [On this note, see also our earlier post regarding the SEC's recent Dear CFO letter, which addresses contingency disclosures among other things.]

Disclosures About an Employer's Participation in a Multiemployer Plan: FASB agreed not to make this proposed standard effective this year. Redeliberations will continue.

Investment Properties: The Board instructed the staff to develop a scope proposal that would include entities whose primary activities are investing in real estate and who have some characteristics similar to investment companies, for example, the entity has unrelated investors, and the entity intends to provide investors with returns from both rental income and capital appreciation. Additionally, the Board agreed that lessors of properties that are outside the scope of the investment properties guidance would be affected by the FASB Exposure Draft, Leases (Topic 840), and should therefore focus their attention and comments to the Board on that proposed guidance.

Going Concern. (No, not that Going Concern, this Going Concern.) Updated: FASB discussed a summary of key issues raised by external reviewers on a preliminary staff draft of a proposed Accounting Standards Update for this project and decided to deliberate these issues at a future board meeting. Additionally, the Board directed the staff to obtain SEC and PCAOB input on the revised draft standard.

FASB, IASB Meet Jointly (by videoconference) on Financial Instruments
FASB is also holding a series of joint board meetings with the IASB this week, via videoconference, focusing on the financial instruments project. Results of the joint board meetings are being posted here.

Bean There, Done That

Prof. Dave Albrecht of Concordia College reports in his blog, The Summa, that today (November 10) is that most raucous of commemorations, Accounting Day. (Actually, I added the raucous part.)

Curious? See Albrecht's recent post on this subject, Accounting Day 2010, (in which he notes Nov. 10 has been recognized as Accounting Day because "On November 10, 1494, volume 2 of Summa de Arithmetica, Geometria, Proportioni et Proportionalita (Everything About Arithmetic, Geometry and Proportion) was published... [authored by] Luca Pacioli [the book] included a description of the bookkeeping/accounting system of Venice. In honor of this contribution, Pacioli has carried for centuries the title of Father of Accounting." More curious? See wikipedia's writeup on Pacioli.

Alas, Albrecht also points out in his post Accountant's Day Honors Pacioli, citing New Mexico State Univ. accounting professor Ed Scribner, “Recent DNA evidence reveals that Pacioli is not actually the Father of Accounting …”.

FASB, IASB Activities
How did our modern-day Pacioli's at the Financial Accounting Standards Board, and the International Accounting Standards Board, celebrate this day? (This may be a good time to remind you of the disclaimer posted on the right side of this blog.) I can imagine the board members and staff raising a glass of bubbly (ginger ale, that is, or maybe Alka Seltzer) in honor of Accounting Day...

But seriously, what was on the standard-setters plate(s) today? Here's a synopsis of FASB's Summary of Board Decisions reached at their board meeting earlier today:

Disclosure of Certain Loss Contingencies (including Litigation): FASB staff summarized comment letters received on FASB's proposal, and identified issues for redeliberation.

Significantly, signalling a holistic look at this issue, FASB's summary adds: "The board directed the staff to work with the staffs of the SEC and PCAOB to understand their efforts in addressing investor concerns about the disclosure of certain loss contingency through increased focus on compliance with existing rules. The Board also directed the staff to review filings for the 2010 calendar year-end reporting cycle to determine if those efforts have resulted in improved disclosures about loss contingences." [On this note, see also our earlier post regarding the SEC's recent Dear CFO letter, which addresses contingency disclosures among other things.]

Disclosures About an Employer's Participation in a Multiemployer Plan: FASB agreed not to make this proposed standard effective this year. Redeliberations will continue.

Investment Properties: The Board instructed the staff to develop a scope proposal that would include entities whose primary activities are investing in real estate and who have some characteristics similar to investment companies, for example, the entity has unrelated investors, and the entity intends to provide investors with returns from both rental income and capital appreciation. Additionally, the Board agreed that lessors of properties that are outside the scope of the investment properties guidance would be affected by the FASB Exposure Draft, Leases (Topic 840), and should therefore focus their attention and comments to the Board on that proposed guidance.

Going Concern. (No, not that Going Concern, this Going Concern.) FASB was slated to discuss the status of this project and the "timing for issuance of a Proposed Accounting Standards Update on disclosures about risks and uncertainties and the liquidation basis of accounting." Check back to FASB's Summary of Board Decisions for an update on the results of this discussion.

Joint Board Meetings on Financial Instruments: FASB is also holding a series of joint board meetings with the IASB this week, via videoconference, focusing on the financial instruments project. Results of the joint board meetings are being posted here.

How Did You Spend Accounting Day?
Getting back to our theme of Accounting Day - and by the way, many of our readers are attorneys, is there a Lawyer's Day? - Prof. Albrecht describes in his blog some of his plans to celebrate this day. Ready to join the fun? (And its not even busy season!) You can still enter Prof. Albrecht's Annual Bean Counter's Contest (online of course) if you post your entry by 11:59 pm CT tonight (Nov. 10).

So, how did you spend Accounting Day?

Determining the Midterm Election's Impact

With last week's midterm elections behind us, FEI's Government Affairs office in Washington DC has provided an analysis of the potential impact of the changing of the guard. Focusing on the impact of the elections on business, the FEI summary is entitled: Decision 2010: A Post-Election Analysis For Business. The primary author of the study is Tyler Roberts, Policy Analyst, FEI.

Separately, Francine McKenna, founder and managing editor of Re: The Auditors (and now a Forbes online columnist) posted her own thoughts and analysis of the midterm elections today, in her post: Put Your Money Where The Money Is: The Auditors And the U.S. Mid-Term Elections.

You can meet Francine at FEI's Current Financial Reporting Issues Conference next week, where she will be part of the press pool covering the event. Where else can you hear from leaders of the FASB, SEC and IASB, the finance and auditing profession, and rub elbows with leading journalists (print, online, blog, twitter, and everything in between) as well? We hope to see you there.