Monthly Archives: February 2017

Trump: Protesters at GOP town halls ‘planned out by liberal activists’ – The Hill

Posted: February 22, 2017 at 4:40 am

President Trump on Tuesday said that liberal activists are orchestrating agitated crowds in GOP lawmakers' home districts across the country.

The so-called angry crowds in home districts of some Republicans are actually, in numerous cases, planned out by liberal activists. Sad! Trump wrote on Twitter.

The so-called angry crowds in home districts of some Republicans are actually, in numerous cases, planned out by liberal activists. Sad!

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Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) and Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) both encountered protesters at recent gatherings in their home districts.

House Oversight Chairman Jason ChaffetzJason ChaffetzGOP rep pushes back on Trump's tweet about town hall protests Trump: Protesters at GOP town halls 'planned out by liberal activists' Juan Williams: Senate GOP begins to push Trump away MORE (R-Utah) earlier this month faced a group of demonstrators back in his district, as protesters called into question his treatment of President Donald TrumpDonald TrumpWH adviser Stephen Miller: 'Nothing wrong' with Trump travel order Mellman: Rating the presidents Webb: The future of conservatism MORE.

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The arrogant thinking of liberal sports writers – The Week Magazine

Posted: at 4:40 am

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"Today, sports writing is basically a liberal profession, practiced by liberals who enforce an unapologetically liberal code," writes Bryan Curtis at The Ringer. He's right.

You can see it in the way sportswriters police a consensus against the Washington Redskins' name, or for on-field political activism. They tweet against President Trump, and for undocumented immigrants. They pile on populist loudmouths like former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, and may even be punishing him for his politics with their Hall of Fame ballots. They proudly admit that they are at a remove from their readers. HardballTalk's Craig Calcaterra owns it: "It's folly for any of us to think we're speaking for the common fan."

Curtis is generally pleased with sports journalism's leftward shift, and treats the possibility of non-conforming writers as a potentially amusing but unnecessary curio. "Would it be nice to have a David Frum or Ross Douthat of sports writing, making wrongheaded-but-interesting arguments about NCAA amateurism?" he asks. "Sure. As long as nobody believed them."

Well, I think I may be this curio myself.

I run a subscription newsletter about baseball The Slurve that is deliberately constructed to be an escape from politics for my readers (and for me). But I'm still a conservative who does a lot of sports writing. Besides The Slurve, I've written a few sports pieces in ESPN Magazine, and occasionally inflict my wrongheaded (but interesting!) sports arguments on readers here at The Week.

Predictably (and perhaps self-interestedly), I think the increasing ideological uniformity of sports writing is bad for sports journalism and for sports themselves. And in the way that it encourages conformism and intellectual laziness, it is probably bad for causes dear to liberals in sports.

Calcaterra is right that liberal sports writers aren't speaking "for the common fan." More often they are speaking at the common fan, or even just at a caricature of a fan that they assembled from the most voluble sports talk radio callers and the obscure Twitter accounts that jeer their work. The liberalism on offer on sports pages is rather infatuated with the norms and aspirations of the class of people from which journalists are drawn. And this narrowness usually puts them in an antagonistic position not just with fans, but with the entire sports culture beyond journalism.

The recent self-consciousness of progressive sports writers also misleads many of them into thinking all their quarrels are with conservative ideas, when they are in fact just arguing with the voluble and inarticulate. Sports radio hosts and their callers are often (wrongly) taken as the stand-in for opposing ideas.

Some of the debates in baseball in particular are given ideological or racial names, when in fact they are generational. Take the debate about bat-flips, which is often cast as one between stodgy white conservatives and fun multicultural liberals who prefer a Latin game. There is a reason why older Baby Boomer writers, who are themselves veterans of a deeply hierarchical system that rewarded time-serving veterans who spent decades writing formulaic gamers, are more likely to admire and defend the hierarchical culture among athletes that includes hazing a rookie, or letting expressive or cocky young players know they have to earn their place in the pecking order. And it's not a surprise that younger writers who smashed through to national audiences through opinionated new digital platforms admire the more expressive players.

But there's only so much that this new crop of sports writers can truly identify with in the players they admire. Socially cosseted with other journalists, liberal sports writers increasingly identify with the only set of actors in the sports world that come from a cultural milieu relatable to their own: the new class of rationalizing, brainy executives. In another generation, sports writers dreamed futilely of being Willie Mays or Gordie Howe. Now they want to be Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey. And their copy and concerns increasingly seem to be written for each other and for these analytics-loving general managers.

Sometimes the problems this produces aren't strictly political. Brian Kenny, the loudest of the sports rationalizers, once asked if anyone should care about no-hitters anymore. After all, nine innings is just a small sample size, and throwing a no-hitter can be a bit flukish. No one thinks that the last person to throw a no-hitter is, by definition, the best pitcher in the game. Kenny used the political-ish rhetoric of liberals to make this point. He was advocating a modern, progressive, and data-driven view of baseball against "antiquated" and misguided "values."

Kenny's argument wasn't wrong as much as it was wrong-footed. He wasn't advocating a progressive view, just the general managers' view that a single game isn't useful for ranking a player or determining his next contract or his trade value. But fans (and players) can still enjoy games as individual dramatic events, apart from the fact that they add a marginal amount of new data to an evaluative spreadsheet. And don't forget, a big story of the last decade has been the humbling of the clever-dick sabermetricians and the journalists who championed them, as new forms of data and deeper insights into front offices confirm some of the once-scorned wisdom of the ages.

The pattern of over-identifying with general managers is endemic to liberal sports journalism, and the not-so-secret truth is that liberal sportswriters increasingly hold the culture that produces athletes and their fans in contempt, or even find it dangerous and threatening. Fans are treated as a distracting nuisance, in thrall to their tribal affinities and over-invested in homegrown players or even in winning itself. How quaint.

The culture of athletes is treated as alien and toxic, a kind of pit in which womanizing bros, aggressive rageaholics, and icky religious freaks are allowed to flourish and enjoy a high income and status that would be justly denied to people who act and think in this way in any other profession. When macho athletes like Yasiel Puig are profiled, it is often in a superficial way in which their background is mined for all political resonance and dramatic tension, but the actual personality is carefully obscured. Athletes are famously hard to get to know, but sportswriters often just seem incapable of getting their head into a macho, competitive, aggressive culture. And sometimes, sports writers seem to be appealing to the general manager or team HR departments to enforce liberal norms on their highly paid assets.

The smaller portion of athletes who happen to share cultural affinities or political commitments with liberal sports writers are given glowing, intimate, get-to-know-you portraits. Stories like "How Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Connor Barwin a bike-riding, socially conscious, Animal Collective-loving hipster is redefining what it means to be a football player." I wonder if there was a follow-up asking all other football players whether they were redefined by Barwin's presence. It's notable that journalists who do seem to get along with average athletes, like Bill Simmons or even Stephen A. Smith, are treated with a little bit of suspicion by the rest of the sports writer tribe.

The almost hegemonic liberalism in sports journalism is due to many factors. It's a product of the culture of prestige journalism, which is becoming more rarefied and conformist. It's also a product of the digital age, in which straight-down-the-line game stories aren't enough to feed the content maw of the internet. It's a product of athletes partially retreating from journalists for fear of being hurt with their sponsors, and journalists needing more than ever to create more colorful human interest stories without that access.

It's also true that conservative ideas tend to be slower off the block. Because they are defenders of tradition, conservatives' arguments often strike liberals as either an unreflective devotion to the way things are (or were), or as being too subtle to be credible. One progressive baseball writer confessed to me privately that my traditionalist argument against expanding the designated hitter to the National League struck him as "koan-like" and that he had trouble deciding whether it was inarguably true or pure nonsense.

The lack of intelligent conservatives in sports, or at least their relative shyness about their ideas, also allows progressive sportswriters to advance ideas without challenge, sometimes all the way into dead ends. Take the debate about Native American mascots in logos. Of course it makes perfect sense to remove or alter any logos that offend people. But all mascots are reductive caricatures. Was the problem that the logos were offensive or that there is so little representation of Native Americans in our culture that their presence as mascots seems mocking by default? Has no one stopped to notice there is something odd about an anti-racism that will cause an evermore diverse country to declare rooting for white-faced mascots the only safe thing to do? How will this deletion of all non-white faces look in 50 years?

The more astonishing piece of conventional wisdom generated by younger self-styled progressive sports writers was their argument against "PED hysteria." Many writers simply said fans didn't care enough, and many liked the results of a juiced game anyway. Some even took it to the logical conclusion: that sports leagues should preside over a free-for-all with performance-enhancing drugs. This is a strangely anti-labor and anti-regulation stance for liberals. It gives tacit encouragement for athletes to ignore both federal laws and their own health interests because of what the market demands. And it wouldn't solve the problem of marginal players taking PEDs to hang on. It would only make them turn to more exotic and dangerous drugs.

And that brings us to a stranger irony for progressive sports writers. Having committed themselves so thoroughly to arguments against "moralizing" or against "tradition," they actually become handmaidens for the interests of owners and capital. Having demythologized all values that are not purely rationalistic, making themselves deaf to arguments for some abstract "integrity of the game," they can mount no principled objection to, for example, commercial advertising being imposed on the bases in baseball. They will be met with their own favorite arguments that "the sky didn't fall" the last time traditionalists objected to some alteration. And in this respect it is notable that the NBA, whose writers tend to be even more progressive than the norm among sports writers, was the first major American sports league to announce that it would sell advertising space on player jerseys.

Similarly, if MLB commissioner Rob Manfred says that a pitch clock and starting a man on second base in extra innings would be good for the game, liberal sports writers would have already debarred themselves from the kind of arguments that would preserve continuity between the game of Mel Ott and Mike Trout.

Liberal sports writers do a lot of good. But they should be a little more analytical when it comes to their own position, and their own culture, and whether it is encouraging sloppiness and arrogance in their thinking, whether it is causing them to broadcast their disdain for the very people they cover, and whether it is fostering in them a charmless contempt for a huge portion of their readers that they can't hide and we can't unsee.

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The liberal takeover of sports writing, how ‘Jane Doe’ switched sides, and other comments – New York Post

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Beto O’Rourke is a Mexico-loving liberal in Texas. Can he really … – Washington Post

Posted: at 4:40 am

EL PASO Beto ORourke has long believed that the closer you get to the Mexican border, the less you fear it. So on a recent afternoon, the Democratic congressman who may challenge Ted Cruz for his U.S. Senate seat walked into Juarez for lunch.

The mere name of this Mexican city conjures images of bloodthirsty cartels or seedy red-light districts the kind of place, some have argued, against which the United States should seal itself with a big, beautiful wall.

ORourke is strongly opposed to that plan. Among other things, it would make it harder to visit the bar he took his wife to on their first date.

It was a little bit of a test, to see if she was up for an adventure, he said, ducking into the dimly lit interior of the Kentucky Club.

She was. After drinks, he recalled, they bumped into a camera crew that tried to enlist the attractive couple to kiss on camera for a TV commercial but ORourke begged off. Es mi hermana, he told them: Shes my sister. Ten months later, they were married.

ORourke isnt naive about the violence that plagues parts of the city. Still, he maintains that crime is not the only story about the U.S.-Mexico border, nor even the most important one. He sees Juarez as a place where an open mind and a stomach for risk can lead to meaningful connections and long-term partnerships.

The question for the 44-year-old with statewide ambitions is: Can he get the people of Texas to see the same thing?

Inside the bar, where Elizabeth Taylor and Steve McQueen once partied and the margarita was supposedly invented, the congressman grabbed a table lined by photos of matadors and Mexican baseball players. He was greeted by an El Paso friend, Miguel Fernandez, whose telecommunications firm does work on both sides of the border.

Fernandez talked about his fear that President Trump will spark a trade war between the two countries. At least tell me, where are you now on running for Senate? Fernandez asked, taking a sip from his bottle of Sol. More than 50-50?

Im pretty close, ORourke said. I really want to do this.

Democrats might look at ORourke a small-business owner with hipster credentials, a GenXer who speaks fluent Spanish and looks more like a Kennedy than the Kennedys do and see a candidate of thrilling national potential, marred only by where he happens to live. But then again, maybe its where he lives that makes him exciting.

With its growing Hispanic population, Democrats have long believed that Texas would eventually belong to them just not imminently. But the 2016 election has scrambled the way people think about these things.

I wouldnt have said it last year, but I think he has a chance, said Anne Caprara, of the Priorities USA super PAC, who is advising ORourke on his 2018 potential.

Naturally, others see opportunities as well. Rep. Joaquin Castro, a San Antonio Democrat deemed a rising star, is considering the race, too.

You wont have a problem raising money. Cruz will basically fundraise for you, said Castros twin brother, Julin, the former housing and urban development secretary who recently ruled out a 2018 bid for governor of Texas.

The Cruz camp maintains that it isnt worried about either but sees Castro as slightly more of a threat than ORourke. But while the Castros have the fundraising prowess and name recognition, their pragmatism and caution could keep both from seeking higher office so soon.

[Julin Castro is ready for whatever comes next]

In El Paso, regarded by many as more Mexican than Texan, ORourke is far removed from the Democratic megadonors of Houston or Austin, and he has decided not to take PAC money if he runs. Still, he hopes to turn a necessity into a virtue with a Bernie Sanders-style approach excite the grass roots and rake in smaller donations.

ORourke may be suffering from the bug thats going around the one causing mass delusions that the old rules of politics no longer apply. Can a Democrat really win in this deeply red state against Cruz, who will be running one of the best-financed campaigns in the country? And can he do so on a positive message about Mexicans in an era when calling them rapists helped make a man president?

The timing might not be right for ORourke, but that hasnt stopped him in the past.

Growing up in El Paso, Robert Francis ORourke (the childhood nickname that stuck is a diminutive of Roberto) wanted nothing more than to get out of town. The son of the county judge, he formed a punk band, Foss, with the hopes of traveling the world.

In 1994, Foss needed exposure, and someone suggested a local public-access show called Get Real With Bill Lowrey.

There was only one hitch. It was an evangelical broadcast. We told them we were a new gospel band, said ORourke.

[WATCH: Foss on Get Real With Bill Lowrey. ORourke is the guy in orange]

Oh yeah, they kind of pulled a fast one on me, recalled Lowrey, the televangelist host. But we enjoyed it. Mostly I cant believe he grew up to be a functioning member of society.

Foss toured the United States and Canada, but greater success would go to ORourkes drummer, Cedric Bixler-Zavala, who moved on to the cult-favorite bands At the Drive-In and The Mars Volta. ORourke, meanwhile, realized he couldnt be a musician forever.

I wasnt that good at it, he admitted. And his dad was pressuring him to grow up. He wont say it, but the expectation is: We didnt take out loans for you to go to Columbia and then [play] in a punk band your whole life.

With his Ivy League degree, ORourke moved back to El Paso and started a technology company and an online arts and culture magazine. Even in his 20s, ORourke found it easy to assume a leadership position in the community.

He ran for and won his first race for city council at 32, with a focus on downtown development and border issues, seeing the two as inextricably linked. He wrote a book about the drug war and offered legislation calling for an honest, open national debate on ending the prohibition on narcotics.

In 2009 ORourke heard his congressman, Rep. Silvestre Reyes, at a Chamber of Commerce meeting described drug-related violence in Juarez like a stick-em-up movie full of cretins who were better off dead, as it sounded to ORourke. The councilman was troubled by what seemed like a lack of empathy for El Pasos twin city. A fellow council member, Steve Ortega, urged him to challenge Reyes. And so, in 2012, he took on the 16-year House veteran in the Democratic primary.

[Have liberals found their combative new leader in Keith Olbermann?]

Reyes, a former Border Patrol chief, had the support of Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. ORourke had an arrest record: In 1995, he was arrested for breaking and entering, a prank gone awry, he says, when some friends bet each other they could get past a fence surrounding the local college. Then there was the 1998 drunken driving arrest, an incident he says was stupid and regrets.

Reyes used ORourkes mug shot in attack ads and criticized him for supporting marijuana legalization. Few people thought ORourke had a chance. But with the help of an anti-incumbent sentiment and an anti-incumbent super PAC that poured $240,000 into the race he won.

Five years later, ORourke sees another opportunity to sneak himself in.

It cost 25 cents to walk across the Paso Del Norte bridge back into the United States after lunch at the Kentucky Club. A gaggle of shoppers marched in front of the congressman women off to buy shoes, clothes and groceries that are cheaper in El Paso. A few weeks earlier, Border Patrol had allowed separated families to wade into the stagnant, ankle-deep water below and hug where the two countries meet.

On the one hand, its really pitiful that this is what they had to do... just to see each other, said ORourke. In another way, its really amazing that El Paso and Juarez could figure out a way, and under President Trump no less, to at least do this for families.

[As the GOPs anti-Trump, Ben Sasse picked a big fight. What would it mean to win?]

At a time when Democrats and Republicans alike talk about securing the border, ORourke maintains that the border has never been more secure. The number of immigrants living illegally in the United States has not increased in years. With 32 million documented border crossings a year, Mexicans are a crucial driver of the El Paso economy. And El Paso ranks as one of the safest cities in the country.

But while ORourke points to El Pasos good health as proof that a semi-porous border works well for both sides, proponents of tougher border security argue that credit goes to the rigorous Border Patrol presence and extensive fencing between Juarez and El Paso.

Thats part of what ORourke was up against when he ran against Reyes, who once spearheaded an effort called Operation Hold the Line. If he runs for Senate, hell face Cruz, who promised in his 2016 presidential bid to triple border security and build a wall that works a slogan that certainly worked for the man who won that race.

I just wish more people could see what I see, ORourke said.

To do that requires an early start.

That morning, he woke before dawn for a hike in the Franklin Mountains, leaving his wife and three children sleeping in their home that a century ago sat above a secret tunnel to Mexico.

With his old city council pal Ortega, he snaked up the trail under a full moon, passing the spiky silhouettes of cypress trees and clumps of greasewood plants that smell like tar when it rains.They perched on a rocky point near the summit where they peeled oranges and shared a thermos of coffee, looking out at the twin cities glittering in the dark.

It was nearly impossible to tell what was Mexico and what was Texas, and that, of course, was his point.

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Liberals vote down Conservative anti-racism motion – The Globe and Mail

Posted: at 4:40 am

The federal Liberals have defeated a Conservative anti-racism motion so they can pass their own version, which condemns Islamophobia.

Conservative MP David Andersons motion to condemn all forms of systemic racism, religious intolerance, and discrimination failed in a vote of 165-126 in the House of Commons, after Liberal MPs, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, voted against it.

The Tories introduced their own anti-racism motion in response to Liberal MP Iqra Khalids M-103, which calls on the government to condemn Islamophobia and all forms of systemic racism and religious discrimination and to study the issue at the heritage committee and make recommendations. For procedural reasons, the Liberal motion will not be voted on until April.

Heritage Minister Mlanie Joly said Tuesday that hate crimes against Muslims have more than doubled since 2012 and reiterated the governments support for Ms. Khalids motion.

The term Islamophobia is extremely important as it is discrimination against the Muslim community, Ms. Joly told reporters after the vote.

The Conservatives have expressed concerns that Islamophobia is not defined in Ms. Khalids motion and said it could stifle freedom of speech, including criticisms of Islam. They also say its more inclusive to treat all religions equally, despite the fact that the House of Commons already unanimously condemned all forms of Islamophobia in an NDP motion last fall, although it wasnt a recorded vote.

Mr. Andersons motion, which mirrors in large part that of the Liberals, condemns all forms of systemic racism, religious intolerance, and discrimination of Muslims, Jews, Christians, Sikhs, Hindus, and other religious communities, but does not specifically mention Islamophobia.

It also states that Canadian society is not immune to the climate of hate and fear exemplified by the recent and senseless violent acts at a Quebec City mosque, referring to last months deadly attack on a Quebec City mosque that left six men dead.

Liberal MP Frank Baylis, who introduced an e-petition last year on which Ms. Khalids motion is based, said if the Conservative version passed, the Liberal one would be considered moot. Both motions make similar recommendations, including that the heritage committee study the issue and develop a whole-of-government approach to reducing or eliminating discrimination, collect data to contextualize hate-crime reports and report back to the Commons within eight months.

The NDP, Bloc Qubcois and the Green Partys Elizabeth May supported the Conservative motion, although the New Democrats say theyll also support the Liberal one. Of the nine sitting Conservative MPs running for leader, only Michael Chong has said he will support M-103.

Representatives from the Canadian Muslim Forum, a non-profit organization established in 1993 to represent the Muslim community on public policy issues, urged parliamentarians to pass the Liberal version of the motion, calling it very courageous.

We are a community under siege, said Samer Majzoub, the forums president.

He said the Conservatives reaction has, directly or indirectly, created waves of Islamophobia all over the country.

This motion, unfortunately came as trying to delegitimize the M-103, and trying really to degrade this motion, Mr. Majzoub told reporters Tuesday before the vote.

Conservative MP Grard Deltell said he disagrees with the characterization that the Conservative motion would have delegitimized M-103.

But, he said, We respect their liberty of speaking, and we respect also the liberty of religion. This is what our motion was all about. And unfortunately, the Liberals decided to vote against.

On Thursday, the Ontario legislature will vote on Liberal MPP Nathalie Des Rosierss motion, which denounces attacks, threats of violence and hate crimes against Muslims and condemns all forms of Islamophobia.

Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Browns office said he will vote in favour of the motion and has instructed his caucus to do the same.

With a report from Les Perreaux

Follow Laura Stone on Twitter: @l_stone

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Jimmy Kimmel says not everyone in Hollywood is ‘very liberal’ – Fox News

Posted: at 4:40 am

As Jimmy Kimmel prepares to host the Oscars on Sunday, he got candid on whether audiences can expect politically-fueledspeeches this year.

It depends on the speech, you know? he told The Hollywood Reporter. I think that youve got a group of people who are largely very liberal, although I will say, the first time I hosted the Emmys, I had a joke about there being no Republicans in the room, and a surprisingly big group of people clapped when I asked if there were Republicans, and I was a little bit thrown by it.

JUDD APATOW SAYS TRUMP GETTING ELECTED IS LIKE BEING RAPED

So I dont think the audience in its entirety is as liberal as people in Middle America imagine it is, added the 49-year-old TV host. But the celebrities, most of them are pretty liberal.

However, Kimmel said that Democrats in Hollywood may have a hard time outshining one leading lady with their speeches.

If I was nominated and I was going to stand on that stage, I think Id be intimidated by how good Meryl Streeps [Golden Globes] speech was, so Id probably keep my mouth shut when it comes down to it, he said.

COUNTRY STARS READ 'MEAN TWEETS' ON 'JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE'

The 67-year-old actress is nominated for her 20th Oscar.

The Academy Awards will be televised Feb. 26.

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BC Liberals make re-election pitch with fifth straight balanced budget – The Globe and Mail

Posted: at 4:40 am

Premier Christy Clark had hoped to head into this springs election running on a new provincial budget infused with billions from a thriving liquefied natural gas industry. She will have to settle for something far less.

On Tuesday, Ms. Clarks Liberal government tabled its final fiscal plan before this Mays provincial showdown and, as expected, it had a bit of something for everyone: corporate and personal tax and fee cuts, health and educating funding hikes, and a range of other spending increases that allows the government to ingratiate itself to an array of constituents.

Make no mistake: this is a document most provincial governments would still be thrilled on which to campaign. For starters, it marks the fifth consecutive balanced budget the Liberals will have submitted, a stretch of first-rate fiscal stewardship unparalleled in the country. The provinces debt-to-GDP ratio is 16.1 per cent which compares to 40.3 per cent for Ontario and 48 per cent for Quebec. It is the only province in the country with a Triple A credit rating.

B.C. promises to cut health premiums in half with pre-election budget

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As Finance Minister Mike de Jong noted, this is not just about holding bragging rights. The difference in that credit rating and those debt figures compared to those of a province like Ontario amounts to a savings of about $2-billion a year in interest costs. That is a lot of program spending.

The government deserves plaudits, as well, for continuing to diversify not just its economy but its trade markets, too. For instance, only 53.9 per cent of B.C.s trade is now with the U.S., compared to 86.3 per cent for Alberta and 80.9 per cent for Ontario. Those percentages take on a more ominous hue when you consider the protectionist trade winds currently emanating from south of the border. Meantime, B.C. created the most jobs in Canada last year as well.

All of this is important. The B.C. Liberals are a coalition of conservative and liberal-minded voters. To keep the conservative wing happy, the Clark government has had to demonstrate it knows how to run an economy, or at least, knows how not to ruin one. It has taken some heat along the way for some of the more ruthless spending decisions it has made in the name of balancing budgets. This has been an important aspect of maintaining the support of conservatives in the province. But the Premier knows she needs to appeal to voters beyond that group as well, especially ones in the mushy ideological middle.

She believes this budget does that. Others may not.

In the weeks leading up to it, Ms. Clark hinted that a significant tax cut was coming. It ended up being a somewhat underwhelming reduction to MSP premiums. It doesnt take effect until next January, while the announced small business corporate tax cut occurs immediately which perhaps speaks to the Liberals priorities. The government has significantly boosted spending in the ministries of education and children and family development, but in both cases it was virtually forced into it; in the instance of education by the courts and in child protection by relentless public criticism and damaging reports.

This is not a government that could in any way be described as warm or sensitive.

Of course, this has always been where the Opposition New Democrats have tried to set themselves apart from the Liberals mostly to little avail. But they will try again.

The New Democrats intend on making a $10-a-day daycare strategy a centrepiece of its election platform, something the Liberals have no interest in touching. The Liberals will also face criticism from the Opposition for not raising welfare rates in this budget, maintaining a hardened position on this line item it has held for a decade. The NDP will almost certainly make other choices on the social welfare side of the ledger that the Liberals resisted in this budget.

At the end of the day, however, the Liberals insist that the upcoming election will be fought on the same fundamental voter concerns as the last one: which party is best for creating jobs and growing the economy, and which party can best be trusted to navigate the often tricky and perilous economic times in which we live.

Ms. Clark is betting this budget, and the four that preceded it, make the case that that party is hers.

Follow Gary Mason on Twitter: @garymasonglobe

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BC Liberals make re-election pitch with fifth straight balanced budget - The Globe and Mail

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Ohanaeze president worried about maltreatment of pro-Biafran members worries – Guardian

Posted: at 4:39 am

Biafra agitators

Ohanaeze President, John Nwodo has frowned at what he described as oppression to pro-Biafran supporters.

He said the Federal Government treats supporters of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) with disdain.

Nwodo stated in Port Harcourt yesterday during a tour, that if the MASSOB and IPOB members were treated like the Niger Delta Avengers and the Boko Haram in the North East, the agitations would be tamed.

He said, Our people feel marginalized, they feel ill-treated. In this country the most sensitive position pertains to the national security, but there is already a vote of no confidence that the Ibos cannot be trusted with the security of the nation. No Igbo man heads the Nigerians police, no Igbo man heads the military, no Igbo man heads the Federal Road Safety Corps, no Igbo man head the Department of State Service and others. We are not the Minister of Defense despite the zoning policy of the federal government.

I dont know why the Federal Government does not want to give people fiscal freedom. We are calling for true federalism.

I know of the Niger Delta Avengers who are angry as the MASSOB and IPOB and are destroying oil facilities. I dont know any of them that have been arrested. What has the IPOB done to be treated differently?

The fact that we have not joined them means that they have not received our cheers because we still believe that the FG can still handle the situation. I call on the Federal Government to have a rethink on how they handle the issues of IPOB and MASSOB. If they treat them as they have treated others they will have a rethink.

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Ohanaeze president worried about maltreatment of pro-Biafran members worries - Guardian

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Why is a freedom enshrined in the UN declaration of human rights … – Stabroek News

Posted: at 4:39 am

Dear Editor,

Article 26 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) asserts that everyone has the right to education. Subsection 3 declares, Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

The public schools offer their brand of education and most parents avail themselves of it. Some parents prefer different kinds of education (that are also approved by the Ministry of Education). They believe strongly enough to pay for their choice. Even though my brothers and I qualified for free places to attend the top public schools of our choice in the then colony, our parents had sufficient religious belief to pay for our education elsewhere. They paid their taxes and exercised their right as citizen parents. They were not taxed by the British Guiana government for their choice. They were not affluent, and we all had to make sacrifices, but we learnt to depend on the God we believed in.

The private school that I attended later became free for candidates like me. In 1976 such schools were fully taken over by the government. The original brand of education offered by that school continued for a while, but over the years the public school brand took over, and the great traditions and examples of earlier eras faded.

After the restoration of democracy in 1992, there arose again the possibility of parents choosing the kind of systematic education they could bestow on their children, and private schools lived again officially, but by no means easily. Now that choice still exists, but it is being made harder by at least 14%. If Guyana is a land of the free, as we sing so often in our National Anthem, why should this freedom to exercise a right enshrined in the UDHR be impeded?

The tax base that pays for public schools and teacher education has already been broadened in other taxes. Parents who pay for private education are already taxed for being able to afford it. If the government is claiming they are not collecting it and that, As of 2016, there were fifty-four private educational institutions registered with the Guyana Revenue Authority, few of whom were tax compliant, including submission of yearly income and corporate tax returns, then they must learn to fix it according to the law and constitution their predecessors imposed on us. Wasnt there a ministry of governance and highly paid advisors appointed to tell them what is obvious to right-thinking citizens?

I should also not have to be the one to tell the Minister of Finance that money is the legally allowed currency of exchange used by the Guyanese society and that therefore any fiscal policy has social effects. It is like trying to say that raising the temperature (tax) in a closed system (society) will not increase the pressure (stress). Every engineer knows there could be a damaging explosion. Perhaps the social scientists can find a better analogy.

Yours faithfully,

Alfred Bhulai

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Why is a freedom enshrined in the UN declaration of human rights ... - Stabroek News

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International Financial Reporting Standards – Wikipedia

Posted: at 4:39 am

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are designed as a common global language for business affairs so that company accounts are understandable and comparable across international boundaries. They are a consequence of growing international shareholding and trade and are particularly important for companies that have dealings in several countries. They are progressively replacing the many different national accounting standards. They are the rules to be followed by accountants to maintain books of accounts which are comparable, understandable, reliable and relevant as per the users internal or external.

IFRS, with the exception of IAS 29 Financial Reporting in Hyperinflationary Economies and IFRIC 7 Applying the Restatement Approach under IAS 29, are authorized in terms of the historical cost paradigm. IAS 29 and IFRIC 7 are authorized in terms of the units of constant purchasing power paradigm.[1][2]

IFRS began as an attempt to harmonize accounting across the European Union but the value of harmonization quickly made the concept attractive around the world. However, it has been debated whether or not de facto harmonization has occurred. Standards that were issued by IASC (the predecessor of IASB) are still within use today and go by the name International Accounting Standards (IAS), while standards issued by IASB are called IFRS. IAS were issued between 1973 and 2001 by the Board of the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC). On 1 April 2001, the new International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) took over from the IASC the responsibility for setting International Accounting Standards. During its first meeting the new Board adopted existing IAS and Standing Interpretations Committee standards (SICs). The IASB has continued to develop standards calling the new standards "International Financial Reporting Standards".

In the absence of a Standard or an Interpretation that specifically applies to a transaction, management must use its judgement in developing and applying an accounting policy that results in information that is relevant and reliable. In making that judgement, IAS 8.11 requires management to consider the definitions, recognition criteria, and measurement concepts for assets, liabilities, income, and expenses in the Framework.

Criticisms of IFRS are (1) that they are not being adopted in the US (see GAAP), (2) a number of criticisms from France and (3) that IAS 29 Financial Reporting in Hyperinflationary Economies had no positive effect at all during 6 years in Zimbabwe's hyperinflationary economy. The IASB offered responses to the first two criticisms, but has offered no response to the last criticism while IAS 29 was as of March 2014 being implemented in its original ineffective form in Venezuela and Belarus.

Financial statements are a structured representation of the financial positions and financial performance of an entity. The objective of financial statements is to provide information about the financial position, financial performance and cash flows of an entity that is useful to a wide range of users in making economic decisions. Financial statements also show the results of the management's stewardship of the resources entrusted to it.[3]

To meet this objective, financial statements provide information about an entity's:

This information, along with other information in the notes, assists users of financial statements in predicting the entity's future cash flows and, in particular, their timing and certainty.[3]

The following are the general features in IFRS:

Fundamental qualitative characteristics of financial information include:

Enhancing qualitative characteristics include:

The elements directly related to the measurement of the statement of financial position include:

The financial performance of an entity is presented in the statement of comprehensive income, which consists of the income statement (Statement of Profit/Loss) and the statement of other comprehensive income[16] (usually presented in two separate statements). Financial performance includes the following elements (which are recognised in the income statement or other comprehensive income as required by the applicable IFRS standard):

Results recognised in other comprehensive income are limited to the following specific circumstances:

The statement of changes in equity consists of a reconciliation of the changes in equity in which the following information is provided:

Statement of Cash Flows

Notes to the Financial Statements: These shall (a) present information about the basis of preparation of the financial statements and the specific accounting policies used; (b) disclose the information required by IFRSs that is not presented elsewhere in the financial statements; and (c) provide information that is not presented elsewhere in the financial statements, but is relevant to an understanding of any of them.[28]

An item is recognized in the financial statements when:[29]

In some cases specific standards add additional conditions before recognition is possible or prohibit recognition altogether.

An example is the recognition of internally generated brands, mastheads, publishing titles, customer lists and items similar in substance, for which recognition is prohibited by IAS 38.[30] In addition research and development expenses can only be recognised as an intangible asset if they cross the threshold of being classified as 'development cost'.[31]

Whilst the standard on provisions, IAS 37, prohibits the recognition of a provision for contingent liabilities,[32] this prohibition is not applicable to the accounting for contingent liabilities in a business combination. In that case the acquirer shall recognise a contingent liability even if it is not probable that an outflow of resources embodying economic benefits will be required.[33]

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are designed as a common global language for business affairs so that company accounts are understandable and comparable across international boundaries. They are a consequence of growing international.

Par. 102. A financial concept of capital is adopted by most entities in preparing their financial statements. Under a financial concept of capital, such as invested money or invested purchasing power, capital is synonymous with the net assets or equity of the entity. Under a physical concept of capital, such as operating capability, capital is regarded as the productive capacity of the entity based on, for example, units of output per day.

Par. 103. The selection of the appropriate concept of capital by an entity should be based on the needs of the users of its financial statements. Thus, a financial concept of capital should be adopted if the users of financial statements are primarily concerned with the maintenance of nominal invested capital or the purchasing power of invested capital. If, however, the main concern of users is with the operating capability of the entity, a physical concept of capital should be used. The concept chosen indicates the goal to be attained in determining profit, even though there may be some measurement difficulties in making the concept operational.

Par. 104. The concepts of capital in paragraph 102 give rise to the following two concepts of capital maintenance:

(a) Financial capital maintenance. Under this concept a profit is earned only if the financial (or money) amount of the net assets at the end of the period exceeds the financial (or money) amount of net assets at the beginning of the period, after excluding any distributions to, and contributions from, owners during the period. Financial capital maintenance can be measured in either nominal monetary units or units of constant purchasing power.

(b) Physical capital maintenance. Under this concept a profit is earned only if the physical productive capacity (or operating capability) of the entity (or the resources or funds needed to achieve that capacity) at the end of the period exceeds the physical productive capacity at the beginning of the period, after excluding any distributions to, and contributions from, owners during the period.

The concepts of capital in paragraph 102 give rise to the following three concepts of capital during low inflation and deflation:

The concepts of capital in paragraph 102 give rise to the following three concepts of capital maintenance during low inflation and deflation:

Par. 105. The concept of capital maintenance is concerned with how an entity defines the capital that it seeks to maintain. It provides the linkage between the concepts of capital and the concepts of profit because it provides the point of reference by which profit is measured; it is a prerequisite for distinguishing between an entity's return on capital and its return of capital; only inflows of assets in excess of amounts needed to maintain capital may be regarded as profit and therefore as a return on capital. Hence, profit is the residual amount that remains after expenses (including capital maintenance adjustments, where appropriate) have been deducted from income. If expenses exceed income the residual amount is a loss.

Par. 106. The physical capital maintenance concept requires the adoption of the current cost basis of measurement. The financial capital maintenance concept, however, does not require the use of a particular basis of measurement. Selection of the basis under this concept is dependent on the type of financial capital that the entity is seeking to maintain.

Par. 107. The principal difference between the two concepts of capital maintenance is the treatment of the effects of changes in the prices of assets and liabilities of the entity. In general terms, an entity has maintained its capital if it has as much capital at the end of the period as it had at the beginning of the period. Any amount over and above that required to maintain the capital at the beginning of the period is profit.

Par. 108. Under the concept of financial capital maintenance where capital is defined in terms of nominal monetary units, profit represents the increase in nominal money capital over the period. Thus, increases in the prices of assets held over the period, conventionally referred to as holding gains, are, conceptually, profits. They may not be recognised as such, however, until the assets are disposed of in an exchange transaction. When the concept of financial capital maintenance is defined in terms of constant purchasing power units, profit represents the increase in invested purchasing power over the period. Thus, only that part of the increase in the prices of assets that exceeds the increase in the general level of prices is regarded as profit. The rest of the increase is treated as a capital maintenance adjustment and, hence, as part of equity.

Par. 109. Under the concept of physical capital maintenance when capital is defined in terms of the physical productive capacity, profit represents the increase in that capital over the period. All price changes affecting the assets and liabilities of the entity are viewed as changes in the measurement of the physical productive capacity of the entity; hence, they are treated as capital maintenance adjustments that are part of equity and not as profit.

Par. 110. The selection of the measurement bases and concept of capital maintenance will determine the accounting model used in the preparation of the financial statements. Different accounting models exhibit different degrees of relevance and reliability and, as in other areas, management must seek a balance between relevance and reliability. This Framework is applicable to a range of accounting models and provides guidance on preparing and presenting the financial statements constructed under the chosen model. At the present time, it is not the intention of the Board of IASC to prescribe a particular model other than in exceptional circumstances, such as for those entities reporting in the currency of a hyperinflationary economy. This intention will, however, be reviewed in the light of world developments.[40]

IFRS financial statements consist of (IAS1.8)

Comparative information is required for the prior reporting period (IAS 1.36). An entity preparing IFRS accounts for the first time must apply IFRS in full for the current and comparative period although there are transitional exemptions (IFRS1.7).

On 6 September 2007, the IASB issued a revised IAS 1 Presentation of Financial Statements. The main changes from the previous version are to require that an entity must:

The revised IAS 1 is effective for annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2009. Early adoption is permitted.

In 2012 the US Securities and Exchange Commission Staff issued a 127-page report of potential issues with IFRS that would need to be addressed before adoption by the United States.[41] The staff of the IFRS Foundation provided a detailed answer on the main criticisms in the SEC staff report.[42]

A number of criticisms were voiced in the beginning of 2013 in the French media to which the IASB Board member Philippe Danjou responded in his document 'An Update on International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs).' [43]

It is widely acknowledged that IAS 29 Financial Reporting in Hyperinflationary Economies had no positive effect during the six years it was implemented during hyperinflation in Zimbabwe. [7][citation needed] This led people[who?] to ask the purpose of IAS 29.[citation needed] As of March 2014, IAS 29 was being implemented in its original ineffective form[citation needed] in Venezuela and Belarus. It was suggested to the IASB in 2012[by whom?] that IAS 29 should be corrected to require daily indexation which would result in effective constant purchasing power accounting and would stabilize the non-monetary economy during hyperinflation. The IASB has offered no response to date (March 2014) to this criticism and has not yet altered IAS 29 to require daily indexation.

IFRS are used in many parts of the world, including the South Korea, European Union, India, Hong Kong, Australia, Malaysia, Pakistan, GCC countries, Russia, Chile, Philippines, South Africa, Singapore and Turkey, but not in the United States. Please refer to PricewaterhouseCoopers' "IFRS by country" publication for a detailed explanation of the level of IFRS adoption per country.[44] 140 Jurisdiction profiles are available online.[45]

It is generally expected that IFRS adoption worldwide will be beneficial to investors and other users of financial statements, by reducing the costs of comparing alternative investments and increasing the quality of information.[46] Companies are also expected to benefit, as investors will be more willing to provide financing.[46] Companies that have high levels of international activities are among the group that would benefit from a switch to IFRS. Companies that are involved in foreign activities and investing benefit from the switch due to the increased comparability of a set accounting standard.[47] However, Ray J. Ball has expressed some skepticism of the overall cost of the international standard; he argues that the enforcement of the standards could be lax, and the regional differences in accounting could become obscured behind a label. He also expressed concerns about the fair value emphasis of IFRS and the influence of accountants from non-common-law regions, where losses have been recognized in a less timely manner.[46]

To assess progress towards the goal of a single set global accounting standards, the IFRS Foundation has developed and posted profiles about the use of IFRSs in individual jurisdictions. These were based on information from various sources. The starting point was the responses provided by standard-setting and other relevant bodies to a survey that the IFRS Foundation conducted. Currently, profiles are completed for 124 jurisdictions, including all of the G20 jurisdictions plus 104 others. Eventually, the plan is to have a profile for every jurisdiction that has adopted IFRSs, or is on a programme toward adoption of IFRSs.[48]

The Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) has issued 'Australian equivalents to IFRS' (A-IFRS), numbering IFRS standards as AASB 18 and IAS standards as AASB 101141. Australian equivalents to SIC and IFRIC Interpretations have also been issued, along with a number of 'domestic' standards and interpretations. These pronouncements replaced previous Australian generally accepted accounting principles with effect from annual reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2005 (i.e. 30 June 2006 was the first report prepared under IFRS-equivalent standards for June year ends). To this end, Australia, along with Europe and a few other countries, was one of the initial adopters of IFRS for domestic purposes (in the developed world). It must be acknowledged, however, that IFRS and primarily IAS have been part and parcel of accounting standard package in the developing world for many years since the relevant accounting bodies were more open to adoption of international standards for many reasons including that of capability.

The AASB has made certain amendments to the IASB pronouncements in making A-IFRS, however these generally have the effect of eliminating an option under IFRS, introducing additional disclosures or implementing requirements for not-for-profit entities, rather than departing from IFRS for Australian entities. Accordingly, for-profit entities that prepare financial statements in accordance with A-IFRS are able to make an unreserved statement of compliance with IFRS.

The AASB continues to mirror changes made by the IASB as local pronouncements. In addition, over recent years, the AASB has issued so-called 'Amending Standards' to reverse some of the initial changes made to the IFRS text for local terminology differences, to reinstate options and eliminate some Australian-specific disclosure. There are some calls for Australia to simply adopt IFRS without 'Australianising' them and this has resulted in the AASB itself looking at alternative ways of adopting IFRS in Australia.

Brazil has already adopted IFRS for all companies whose securities are publicly traded and for most financial institutions whose securities are not publicly traded, for both consolidated and separate (individual) company financial statements.[49]

The use of IFRS became a requirement for Canadian publicly accountable profit-oriented enterprises for financial periods beginning on or after 1 January 2011. This includes public companies and other "profit-oriented enterprises that are responsible to large or diverse groups of shareholders."[50]

In 2002 the European Union agreed that from 1 January 2005 International Accounting Standards / International Financial Reporting Standards would apply for the consolidated accounts of the EU listed companies.[51]

In order to be approved for use in the EU, standards must be endorsed by the Accounting Regulatory Committee (ARC), which includes representatives of member state governments and is advised by a group of accounting experts known as the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group. As a result, IFRS as applied in the EU may differ from that used elsewhere.

Parts of the standard IAS 39: Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement were not originally approved by the ARC. IAS 39 was subsequently amended, removing the option to record financial liabilities at fair value, and the ARC approved the amended version. The IASB is working with the EU to find an acceptable way to remove a remaining anomaly in respect of hedge accounting. The World Bank Centre for Financial Reporting Reform is working with countries in the ECA region to facilitate the adoption of IFRS and IFRS for SMEs.

Whilst the IASB set the effective dates for the new consolidation standards IFRS 10 Consolidated Financial Statements, IFRS 11 Joint Arrangements and IFRS 12 Disclosure of Interests in Other Entities at 1 January 2013, the ARC decided to delay the mandatory effective date for the companies listed in the European Union by one year. The standards therefore only became effective on 1 January 2014.[52]

The European Commission has launched a general analysis of the impacts of 8 years of use of international financial reporting standards (IFRSs) in the EU for preparers and users of financial statements from the private sector. The study will include an overall assessment of whether the Regulation 1606/2002 of the European Parliament and the Council ('IAS Regulation') has met the two-fold initial objectives of ensuring a high degree of transparency and comparability of the financial statements of European companies and an efficient functioning of the market, in comparison with the situation before IFRS implementation in 2005. It will also include a cost-benefit analysis and an assessment and analysis of the benefits and drawbacks brought by the IAS Regulation for different stakeholder groups.[53]

Ghana transitioned from the Ghana Accounting Standards (GAS) to adopt the IFRS on January 1, 2007.[54] As of 2008 and beyond, a legislative injunction has been imposed on the Bank of Ghana to prepare financial statements in accordance with IFRS; thereby making it mandatory for all public entities in the country.[55]

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has announced that IFRS will be mandatory in India for financial statements for the periods beginning on or after 1 April 2016 in a phased manner. There is a roadmap issued by MCA for adoption of IFRS.

Reserve Bank of India has stated that financial statements of banks need to be IFRS-compliant for periods beginning on or after 1 April 2011.

The ICAI has also stated that IFRS will be applied to companies above INR 1000 crore (INR 10 billion) from April 2011. Phase wise applicability details for different companies in India:

Phase 1: Opening balance sheet as at 1 April 2011* i. Companies which are part of NSE Index Nifty 50 ii. Companies which are part of BSE Index Sensex 30

a. Companies whose shares or other securities are listed on a stock exchange outside India

b. Companies, whether listed or not, having net worth of more than INR 1000 crore (INR 10 billion)

Phase 2: Opening balance sheet as at 1 April 2012*

Companies not covered in phase 1 and having net worth exceeding INR 500 crore (INR 5 billion)

Phase 3: Opening balance sheet as at 1 April 2014*

Listed companies not covered in the earlier phases * If the financial year of a company commences at a date other than 1 April, then it shall prepare its opening balance sheet at the commencement of immediately following financial year.

On 22 January 2010, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs issued the road map for transition to IFRS. It is clear that India has deferred transition to IFRS by a year. In the first phase, companies included in Nifty 50 or BSE Sensex, and companies whose securities are listed on stock exchanges outside India and all other companies having net worth of INR 10billion will prepare and present financial statements using Indian Accounting Standards converged with IFRS. According to the press note issued by the government, those companies will convert their first balance sheet as at 1 April 2011, applying accounting standards convergent with IFRS if the accounting year ends on 31 March. This implies that the transition date will be 1 April 2011. According to the earlier plan, the transition date was fixed at 1 April 2010.

The press note does not clarify whether the full set of financial statements for the year 201112 will be prepared by applying accounting standards convergent with IFRS. The deferment of the transition may make companies happy, but it will undermine India's position. Presumably, lack of preparedness of Indian companies has led to the decision to defer the adoption of IFRS for a year. This is unfortunate that India, which boasts for its IT and accounting skills, could not prepare itself for the transition to IFRS over last four years. But that might be the ground reality. Transition in phases Companies, whether listed or not, having net worth of more than INR 5billion will convert their opening balance sheet as at 1 April 2013. Listed companies having net worth of INR 5billion or less will convert their opening balance sheet as at 1 April 2014. Un-listed companies having net worth of Rs5billion or less will continue to apply existing accounting standards, which might be modified from time to time. Transition to IFRS in phases is a smart move. The transition cost for smaller companies will be much lower because large companies will bear the initial cost of learning and smaller companies will not be required to reinvent the wheel. However, this will happen only if a significant number of large companies engage Indian accounting firms to provide them support in their transition to IFRS. If, most large companies, which will comply with Indian accounting standards convergent with IFRS in the first phase, choose one of the international firms, Indian accounting firms and smaller companies will not benefit from the learning in the first phase of the transition to IFRS. It is likely that international firms will protect their learning to retain their competitive advantage. Therefore, it is for the benefit of the country that each company makes judicious choice of the accounting firm as its partner without limiting its choice to international accounting firms. Public sector companies should take the lead and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) should develop a clear strategy to diffuse the learning. Size of companies The government has decided to measure the size of companies in terms of net worth. This is not the ideal unit to measure the size of a company. Net worth in the balance sheet is determined by accounting principles and methods. Therefore, it does not include the value of intangible assets. Moreover, as most assets and liabilities are measured at historical cost, the net worth does not reflect the current value of those assets and liabilities. Market capitalisation is a better measure of the size of a company. But it is difficult to estimate market capitalisation or fundamental value of unlisted companies. This might be the reason that the government has decided to use 'net worth' to measure size of companies. Some companies, which are large in terms of fundamental value or which intend to attract foreign capital, might prefer to use Indian accounting standards convergent with IFRS earlier than required under the road map presented by the government. The government should provide that choice.[56]

The minister for Financial Services in Japan announced in late June 2011 that mandatory application of the IFRS should not take place from fiscal year-ending March 2015; five to seven years should be required for preparation if mandatory application is decided; and to permit the use of U.S. GAAP beyond the fiscal year ending 31 March 2016.[57]

Montenegro gained independence from Serbia in 2006. Its accounting standard setter is the Institute of Accountants and Auditors of Montenegro (IAAM).[58]:2 In 2005, IAAM adopted a revised version of the 2002 "Law on Accounting and Auditing" which authorized the use of IFRS for all entities.[58]:18 IFRS is currently required for all consolidated and standalone financial statements, however, enforcement is not effective except in the banking sector.[58]:18 Financial statements for banks in Montenegro are, generally, of high quality and can be compared to those of the European Union.[58]:3 Foreign companies listed on Montenegro's two stock exchanges (Montenegro Stock Exchange and NEX Stock Exchange) are also required to apply IFRS in their financial statements.[59] Montenegro does not have a national GAAP.[58]:18 Currently, no Montenegrin translation of IFRS exists, and because of this Montenegro applies the Serbian translation from 2010.[60]:20 IFRS for SMEs is not currently applied in Montenegro.[60]:20

In Nepal the Accounting Standards Board (ASB) is in charge of standard setting. Nepal closely models its Financial Reporting Standards (FRS) according to the IFRS, with appropriate changes made to suit the Nepalese context. It has issued Nepal Financial Reporting Standards in 2013. The 2013 version of standards almost resembles IFRS with slight modification.

All listed companies must follow all issued IAS/IFRS except the following: IAS 39 and IAS 41: Implementation of these standards has been held in abeyance by State Bank of Pakistan for Banks and DFIs IFRS-1: Effective for the annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2004. This IFRS is being considered for adoption for all companies other than banks and DFIs. IFRS-9: Under consideration of the relevant Committee of the Institutes (ICAP & ICMAP). This IFRS will be effective for the annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2013.

The government of Russia has been implementing a program to harmonize its national accounting standards with IFRS since 1998. Since then twenty new accounting standards were issued by the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation aiming to align accounting practices with IFRS. Despite these efforts essential differences between Russian accounting standards and IFRS remain. Since 2004 all commercial banks have been obliged to prepare financial statements in accordance with both Russian accounting standards and IFRS. Full transition to IFRS is delayed but starting 2012 new modifications making Russian GAAP converging to IFRS have been made. They notably include the booking of reserves for bad debts and contingent liabilities and the devaluation of inventory and financial assets.

Still, several differences between the two sets of account still remain. Major reasons for deviation between Russian GAAP and IFRS / US-GAAP (e.g. when the Russian affiliate of a larger group need to be consolidated to the mother company) are the following:

In Singapore the Accounting Standards Committee (ASC) is in charge of standard setting. Singapore closely models its Financial Reporting Standards (FRS) according to the IFRS, with appropriate changes made to suit the Singapore context. Before a standard is enacted, consultations with the IASB are made to ensure consistency of core principles.[61]

All companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange have been required to comply with the requirements of International Financial Reporting Standards since 1 January 2005.

The IFRS for SMEs may be applied by 'limited interest companies', as defined in the South African Corporate Laws Amendment Act of 2006 (that is, they are not 'widely held'), if they do not have public accountability (that is, not listed and not a financial institution). Alternatively, the company may choose to apply full South African Statements of GAAP or IFRS.

South African Statements of GAAP are entirely consistent with IFRS, although there may be a delay between issuance of an IFRS and the equivalent SA Statement of GAAP (can affect voluntary early adoption).

(1) Phase I companies: listed companies and financial institutions supervised by the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), except for credit cooperatives, credit card companies and insurance intermediaries:

(2) Phase II companies: unlisted public companies, credit cooperatives and credit card companies:

(3) Pre-disclosure about the IFRS adoption plan, and the impact of adoption

To prepare properly for IFRS adoption, domestic companies should propose an IFRS adoption plan and establish a specific taskforce. They should also disclose the related information from 2 years prior to adoption, as follows:

2008

2009~2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

(1) More efficient formulation of domestic accounting standards, improvement of their international image, and enhancement of the global rankings and international competitiveness of our local capital markets;

(2) Better comparability between the financial statements of local and foreign companies;

(3) No need for restatement of financial statements when local companies wish to issue overseas securities, resulting in reduction in the cost of raising capital overseas;

(4) For local companies with investments overseas, use of a single set of accounting standards will reduce the cost of account conversions and improve corporate efficiency.

Above is quoted from Accounting Research and Development Foundation, with the original "here" (PDF).(18.9 KB) .

The Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency and Capital Markets Board of Turkey translated IFRS into Turkish in 2002. Banks and Turkish companies listed on the Istanbul Stock Exchange are required to prepare IFRS reports since then. The Turkish Accounting Standards Board (called the Public Oversight Authority after 2011) also translated IFRS in 2005. The new Commercial Code came into force in 2012. The Public Oversight Authority is the only authorized board regarding auditing and financial reporting standards. Most businesses authorized by the Council of Ministers in addition to banks and Turkish companies listed on the Istanbul Stock Exchange are required to prepare IFRS reports since 2012.

Zimbabwe also adopted IFRS.

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International Financial Reporting Standards - Wikipedia

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