Accounting Miscellany

Newspaper articles often say or imply that the national debt risks exploding if it exceeds 100% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Some such articles even say this more directly by talking about national debt becoming ‘larger than the economy’, by which they appear to mean ‘exceeding 100% of GDP’. Such articles rarely say why the… Continue reading Stocks, flows and national debt

IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts requires the discount rate for insurance liabilities to reflect the characteristics of the insurance liabilities, including their liability characteristics. IFRS Accounting Standards dealing with other types of liability do not typically mention liquidity. This post explains why IFRS 17 addresses this topic. This post covers: This post discusses only the discount… Continue reading Liability discount rates and liquidity

Consolidated financial statements report the assets and liabilities, income and expenses, and equity of a group as if the group were a single entity. A group is a parent and its subsidiaries (the entities controlled by the parent). Obviously, a parent and its subsidiaries are not a single entity, even though consolidated financial statements report… Continue reading Can a subsidiary have assets and liabilities?