Do We Actually Know What the Auto Companies Earn or Lose?

摘要

The SEC recently sent a request to General Motors, Ford, Delphi and others to understand their actuarial assumptions for pension accounting to determine if changes were made to impact reported profits and not warranted by reality. Pension accounting, especially of plans that are as deeply under-funded as those of the auto companies, is a legitimate area of inquiry for the agency, especially at a time when the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation is facing massive liabilities. It seems that the regulators have now set their sights on management behavior that aims to smooth or present in inaccurate picture of corporate profits through the use of accounting changes or purely financial contrivances.