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Where Financial Reporting Still Falls Short

Bruce Peterson   

In a perfect world, investors, board members, and executives would have full confidence in companies’ financial statements. They could rely on the numbers to make intelligent estimates of the magnitude, timing, and uncertainty of future cash flows and to judge whether the resulting estimate of value was fairly represented in the current stock price. And they could make wise decisions about whether to invest in or acquire a company, thus promoting the efficient allocation of capital.

Read more on Accounting or related topics Finance and investing and Financial statements
A version of this article appeared in the July–August 2016 issue of Harvard Business Review.

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