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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (30726)	8/7/1998 12:15:00 PM
From: cardcounter	Respond to of 132070

here it is (you may need a password) thestreet.com otherwise, here's the pertinent clip: Reader revolt; after yesterday's "Extra" on Sunbeam (SOC:NYSE), former CPA and auditor Dave Swank writes: "I am astounded by this talk of special charges and operating earnings. If investor folks can't figure out that all the debits count, whether above or below the line, then they deserve what they get. In most cases, there is nothing wrong with a write off if there is no future benefit to be derived from the asset in question. The problem seems to be in the reading of the income statement, not the writing of it!" Adds reader Michael Burke: "My rule has always been that an income statement means nothing until compared to the balance sheet. I have seen scores of firms, ranging from the huge, such as IBM, to the puny, such as Chantal, whose balance sheets call their income statements liars." Finally, from reader Karen Finerman: "I worked as an auditor for a 'middle ten' (as they were called back in the early '80s) accounting firm. It was a joke the way we moved numbers around to please the client. And that was only the stuff we saw. G-d knows what we didn't see.''