Acknowledgments xi
The Book in a Nutshell xiii
Prologue xxv
CHAPTER 1 Corporate Reporting Then and Now: A Century of “Progress” 1
CHAPTER 2 And You Thought Earnings Are the Bottom Line 15
PART ONE Matter of Fact 27
CHAPTER 3 The Widening Chasm between Financial Information and Stock Prices 29
CHAPTER 4 Worse Than at First Sight 41
CHAPTER 5 Investors’ Fault or Accounting’s? 50
CHAPTER 6 Finally, For the Still Unconvinced 61
CHAPTER 7 The Meaning of It All 67
PART TWO Why Is the Relevance Lost? 77
CHAPTER 8 The Rise of Intangibles and Fall of Accounting 81
CHAPTER 9 Accounting: Facts or Fiction? 94
CHAPTER 10 Sins of Omission and Commission 104
PART THREE So, What’s to Be Done? 113
CHAPTER 11 What Really Matters to Investors (and Managers) 119
CHAPTER 12 Strategic Resources & Consequences Report: Case No. I—Media and Entertainment 133
CHAPTER 13 Strategic Resources & Consequences Report: Case No. 2—Property and Casualty Insurance 146
CHAPTER 14 Strategic Resources & Consequences Report:
Case No. 3—Pharmaceutics and Biotech 163
CHAPTER 15 Strategic Resources & Consequences Report:
Case No. 4—Oil and Gas Companies 179
PART FOUR Practical Matters 197
CHAPTER 16 Implementation 199
CHAPTER 17 So, What to Do with Accounting? A Reform Agenda 213
CHAPTER 18 Investors’ Operating Instructions 230
Epilogue: Advocacy Needed 241
Author Index 243
Subject Index 247
