Academic

SHOCKER: Hungary Says Its Books Were Cooked. ?There?s a saying I?ve heard from accountants: reces?

By Glenn Reynolds

SHOCKER: Hungary Says Its Books Were Cooked. “There’s a saying I’ve heard from accountants: recessions uncover what auditors can’t. . . . That’s why recessions always seem to be accompanied by revelations of terrible accounting practices, which makes a lot of people think that an epidemic of dishonest accounting must have brought the economy to its knees. But there’s not much evidence that accounting practices actually get worse at the end of booms; it’s just that companies who might have gotten away with it and eventually made enough money to repair the hole in their balance sheets, instead are forced to disclose what they’ve done. I supect that this is also the case with the emerging epidemic of governments who cooked the books.”

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on June 05, 2010 (boomark / email).