RE: Playing Accountant

[Micheal J]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: address@hidden [mailto:address@hidden Behalf Of Neil
> Tiffin
> Sent: 19 March 2001 18:40
> To: address@hidden; address@hidden
> Subject: Re: Playing Accountant
>
>
> At 10:10 AM -0800 3/19/01, Derek A. Neighbors wrote:
> >So my question is should we allow a way to account for such factors
> >in our reporting etc??  Kind of a monetary unit restatement?  For
> >what its worth Im not an accountant, but would like to hear opinions.
>
> This is a complicated issue, but good to have it raised now.
>
> Currency, can not IMHO opinion be treated like another unit of
> measure for the exact reason you define, its reference to other
> currencies changes over time.

The issue Derek raised wasn't about fluctuating exchange rates AFAICT. It
was more about the changes in the value of a single currency over time. His
example for instance argues that the value of 1 dollar today is different
from the value of 1 dollar in 60 years time. Both are still called 1 dollar
though. I believe this is what is termed inflation but I stand to be
corrected. Of course inflation can be positive as well as negative
(devaluation).

I have no clear views on how to deal with this as I am not a domain expert
(i.e. accountant or other such finance professional). Accountants obviously
have a mechanism for dealing with this. We just need to get into the heads
of a few friendly accountant and get them to spill the beans...

Micheal