Friday

A very busy week. The ICAEW Information for Better Markets conference on Monday and Tuesday was a mixed bag. The topic, accounting for financial instruments, wasn't exactly exciting (a friend asked if it was about euro violins and dollar dulcimers, which I liked the sound of) but I was very keen to hear Andy Haldane of the Bank of England who was respondent to one of the main papers, and he didn't disappoint. The technical stuff was hard to concentrate on: in one session I sat next to the chair of the research board who snoozed all through it and I don't think he was the only one. The practitioner speakers were good, though. I had some useful conversations in the breaks and caught up with old friends. The food was fairly awful and the hotel - my favourite, the Hoxton - was very noisy with youngsters running up and down the corridor all night. I was pleased to get home although two days away meant an accumulation of email to plough through.

In the most boring bits I pondered why accounting has got so much more complicated than when I first started studying it, 46 years ago. The shift from the traditional stewardship approach, which still underpins UK company law, to the notion of decision-usefulness which underpins accounting standards has led us into a world where risk and uncertainty need to be recognised much more explicitly in calculations and that has brought a host of problems around issues of judgement. The politics of standard-setting has become institutionalised so continuing complexity seems inevitable, as it works in the interests of standard-setters. One of the speakers cited Knight on risk and uncertainty which is on my list of books to read when I get a chance.

The webcast of the event should appear eventually on this page:

http://www.icaew.com/en/technical/financial-reporting/information-for-better-markets/information-for-better-markets-webcasts

On Wednesday we had a departmental meeting which in my view very much reflected the state of chaos we are in. I do find meetings more and more frustrating. People don't seem to have a clear idea of what they want the outcomes to be, no details are circulated in advance to assist the attendees in considering the topics and timing is ignored. Sadly, we bade farewell to one of my favourite colleagues but our Xmas lunch was very jolly.

Since then I have been trying to clear up admin stuff. I have managed to fix a speaker for a seminar slot in March which counts as a success, given that everyone is so busy. Of course, I shall probably have to spend time nearer the date rustling up an audience.