Acknowledgments xi
The Book in a Nutshell xiii
Prologue xxv
Chapter 1 Corporate Reporting Then and Now: A Century of "Progress" 1
Chapter 2 And You Thought Earnings Are the Bottom Line 15
Part 1 Matter of Fact 27
Chapter 3 The Widening Chasm between Financial information and Stock Prices 29
Chapter 4 Worse Than at First Sight 41
Chapter 5 Investors' Fault or Accounting's? 50
Chapter 6 Finally For the Still unconvinced 61
Chapter 7 The Meaning of It All 67
Part 2 Why Is the Relevance Lost? 77
Chapter 8 The Rise of Intangibles and Fall of Accounting 81
Chapter 9 Accounting: Facts or Fiction? 94
Chapter 10 Sins of Omission and Commission 104
Part 3 So, What's to Be Done? 113
Chapter 11 What Ready Matters to Investors (and Managers) 118
Chapter 12 Strategic Resources & Consequences Report: Case No. 1-Media and Entertainment 133
Chapter 13 Strategic Resources & Consequences Report: Case No. 2-Property and Casualty Insurance 146
Chapter 14 Strategic Resources & Consequences Report: Case No. 3-Pharmaceutics and Biotech 163
Chapter 15 Strategic Resources & Consequences Report: Case No. 4-Oil and Gas Companies 179
Part 4 Practical Matters 197
Chapter 16 Implementation 199
Chapter 17 So, What to Do with Accounting? A Reform Agenda 213
Chapter 18 Investors' Operating Instructions 230
Epilogue: Advocacy Needed 241
Author Index 243
Subject Index 247