Courtesy of Jr. Deputy Accountant
Did PwC basically help the Fed scrub out a $31 million accounting boo-boo? It certainly appears that way (Going Concern):
The Board’s staff and our accounting function at the New York Fed have worked out an accounting treatment to correct for both the $5 million and the $26.6 million errors. That involves reducing the accrued interest asset account by the entire $31.6 million, with an offsetting reduction in interest income on foreign currency investments. We will make that adjustment before the end of the year and spread it among all the Reserve Banks. Of course, for all of us with responsibilities for SOMA this is an embarrassing, indeed humbling, event. As a technical matter, though, I understand that PricewaterhouseCoopers is comfortable with the conclusion of both our accounting and audit function and the Board staff that this is not a material event for purposes of disclosure for any Reserve Bank.
That quote is directly from the December 21, 1999 FOMC transcript, which may be found online here.
The great part is that the Fed gets to destroy its records every five years, which roughly corresponds with how long they take to release full transcripts of FOMC meetings. How many public companies wish they had that kind of freedom?
FOIA? Suck these cash flows, biatch!
