Value of Accounting Standards

Accounting rules are designed to serve the capital markets and make these markets work efficiently. Accounting rules are essential to the efficient functioning of the economy because decisions about the allocation of resources rely heavily on credible, concise, transparent and understandable financial information. Without standard measures of the worth of a company, lenders and investors would have no way in which to evaluate the worth of the business, so these rules are essential to the capital markets. With the rise of multinational businesses, it is essential that these rules be uniform throughout the world. Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) are the accounting rules used to prepare financial statements for publicly traded companies and many private companies in the United States. In the United States, as well as other countries practicing English common law system, the government does not set accounting standards, in the belief that the...
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