ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES 92 – DECEMBER 2020 SOME UNSEASONAL REFLECTIONS ON MONEY Several comments and questions on my last essay deserve a thoughtful response, which is the theme of today’s essay. You may recall its references to today’s dependency culture – the “expectation syndrome” that fuels the size and cost of welfare programmes as the state’s […]

ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES 91 – 14 NOVEMBER 2020 EMILE WOOLF Economically speaking, we are in a pickle. The blame-game is in full flow in its search for scapegoats. The most obvious culprit is, of course, the Covid virus, but it would be a huge mistake to blame that. The government’s inconstant and wavering response to Coronavirus […]

  ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES 88 – OCTOBER 2020   More than six months have elapsed since the devastating lockdown measures were first imposed on the nation, since when we have been shrouded in a fog of confusion and ineptitude. The authorities may have been acting with the best of intentions, but the only certainty is the […]

ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 89   Economic consequences – always ask: Who benefits?   Things don’t just “happen”. Everything in the passing parade of phenomena is the result of something that preceded it: this is the world of cause and effect. Those appointed to hold the levers of power therefore carry a huge responsibility to act […]

The “flawless” audit exists in the mind alone. Regulators such as the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) are therefore having to deal with the many that, in varying degrees, are flawed. However, the FRC’s practice of allowing so many years to pass before reporting their findings and punishing the culprits undoubtedly weakens its authority and blunts […]

Accountancy-online – February 2020 My last article focused on the susceptibility of purchased “goodwill” to manipulation, and I cited instances in which its overvaluation had destroyed accounting reliability, causing severe losses to investors. This time let’s take a look at the ease with which another asset, year-end stock of goods, can wreak havoc with a […]

ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 87   SEPTEMBER 2020 The tenacity with which certain economic fallacies persist is truly remarkable. Take the notion that the euro currency is too strong for certain countries, notably Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy, causing their exports to be too expensive for foreign buyers; and being members of the eurozone they are […]

ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES 86   Every primer on economics cites the familiar factors of production, land, labour and capital, as prerequisites for productive activity. Sometimes entrepreneurship is added to represent the gifted brain who brings the other three together in a commercial enterprise.   Land, of course, includes the entire unharnessed bounty of natural resources that […]

  ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 84    [July 2020] Those of us struggling to get a grip on Chancellor Sunak’s latest relief-measures should note the terminology. He seeks to revive the Covid-stricken economy with a series of tax “giveaways”.  When anyone in government talks about giving something away, it’s instructive to ask yourself how they got it […]

  Although I have forgotten most of my own auditing experiences, a few still stand out. A client company that was in business as a confectionary retailer sold cakes over the counter, either whole or in weighed-out portions. The principal internal control was reconciling the weight of cakes leaving the bakery with the weight of […]