Here’s the unspoken truth about International Financial Reporting Standards: there are many solid, respectable, intelligent reasons why a country might want to adopt IFRS—and none of them apply to the United States.
Don’t take my word for it; listen to Julie Erhardt, deputy chief accountant at the Securities and Exchange Commission, who delivered a speech on this exact subject last week at the AICPA’s annual conference. Erhardt has been the SEC’s point-person on IFRS adoption for years, and succinctly walked through all the reasons why countries might adopt such a system of financial reporting. Then she walked off stage, with n’ary a peep about whether the United States will ever get around to adopting IFRS.
