It amazes me at times that however leading
I think the United States is at various things, every now and then I learn
just how far behind this country is in one thing or another that I just
assumed, all along, that we were right up there with cutting edge.
Just read the following
article relative to the new financial reporting standards that the SEC
will be implementing May 14, 2008.
This daunts me: "...China
already requires XBRL for companies listed on its exchanges, and XBRL is
widely used in Japan, Europe and elsewhere."
"...individual investors
in the U.S. will soon move another step closer to a brave new world of
democratized financial information that will put powerful analytical tools
on their desktops. Though the basics of XBRL are simple, the implications
are profound -- and not only for investors and regulators. Police in Spain
are using XBRL to track money laundering, and environmentalists can use it
to rank companies based on their impact on climate change."
Interesting article. Not sure if we should follow other countries examples. Remember a few years back when our judges were looking at decisions based in other countries to try and determine what we should do here on matters and the fury that was raised and books written over the topic. It may be helpful to look at other ideas but we must tread very lightly and slowly when considering adopting something that did not originate on our shores.
Interestingly enough, because we were so far ahead of other countries in many things, we have fallen behind in others.
Cell service and costs, for one. Countries that did not have investment in land line technology adopted and improved cell technology at lower costs than the U.S. (Alaska, because of it's expanse and lack of land line capability was ahead of the rest of the country in cellular coverage & usage for awhile).
Interesting point Mike makes. Cell service in Europe is way beyond anything we have here, and it is often cheaper. When I was working in Sweden my phone worked in subways hundreds of feet below ground (my cell doesn't even work in a tunnel here), all incoming calls were free, and I could call the US for the equivalent of about $0.08/minute. Far better than any of the services here.
Should I be worried? That we are so far behind? I won't lose any sleep over it, but I learn something new everyday. This post contains one of those "new" things.
I recently moved, and while I went without TV for a few weeks, waiting for my appointment with DirecTV to roll around, I got used to listening to talk radio. Now I am hooked. It's better info than I can get flipping channels on TV! No sugar coating, just facts and discussions around those facts. Hmmm, sounds like a reality show...
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
;)
;)
