Carl -
Thanks.
[...Examples where the stock holders act in bizarre and unusual ways don't seem to me to be the way to explore a theory. Where you want to test an alternative to the standard GAAP accounting would be in the simple cases, not the complex ones....]
One reason I'm having trouble coloring within the accounting lines is that part of what I'm interested in, IMO, isn't subject to accounting. Since my theories relate in part to the independent actions of the stockholders, I don't really have the choice to avoid what may well be seen as their bizarre and unusual actions. If a non-accounting process transforms a given starting state to a given end state, then either the accounting treatment that produces the same states is the correct one, or the accounting process is trying to deal with some additional state variables as well. As you have noted, some or most of my examples do not deal with market value at all, never converting ownership to dollars. OTOH, all of your examples make fundamental use of market value. Since I don't believe in the existence of intrinsic value from a fundamental economic POV, if accounting absolutely requires intrinsic values, it may not be possible to reconcile the two points of view.
Regards, Don |
