Causes and Effects of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970

In 1970 the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) was put into place by the Congress of the United States Government. This Act, Title II of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act, is the federal U.S. drug policy which regulates the possession, use, manufacturing and importation of certain controlled substances. The substances controlled under this act fall under various classifications. These classifications are known as schedules. The legislation created 5 schedules with different qualifications for a substance to be included in each. Schedule I includes some of the drugs that are viewed as seriously threatening while schedule V includes drugs that are viewed as not as threatening. A Schedule I drug must fall under one of†¦show more content†¦Later, in the early to mid 1900s, cocaine would be linked to blacks and marijuana would be linked to Mexicans. Many people believe that many of the drug laws put into place were done so because of racism. When the Uni ted States banned opium importation, many other nations began to have concerns about the growing drug abuse problem throughout the world, specifically the abuse of opium in many of the nations of Asia. This concern led to meetings of several nations whose mission was to restrict narcotics to medical use [2]. During the 1920s many mexican immigrants fled to the United States for work. With them, many of them brought marijuana. The act of smoking marijuana was picked up on by many black and white jazz musicians during the 1920s and 1930s, but was not used widespread until the 1960s. During the 1930s, Louis Artmstrong was arrested in California and given a sentence of six months for possession of Marijuana [3]. In 1937, the Treasury Department established a marijuana transfer tax known as the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, after testifying before Congress. After 1937 up until the passing of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Act of 1970, which include the Controlled Substance Act of 1970, marijuana was legally controlled through a transfer tax. [2] During the 40s and 50s, drug use was seen as a symbol of counterculture. Jack Kerouac and other important figures of the Beat Generation allShow MoreRelated`` Reefer Madness `` : An Act Of Young People From Using Cannabis, The Government Released The Film1386 Words   |  6 Pages â€Å"Reefer Madness† As an act to discourage young people from using cannabis, the government released the film Reefer Madness. The 1936 propaganda film revolves around the melodramatic events that ensue when high school students are lured by â€Å"pushers† to try marijuana. The film was very successful and by 1937, 46 states had laws outlawing marijuana use. 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Essay on Paideia and Modern Educational Policy - 3842 Words

Paideia and Modern Educational Policy ABSTRACT: The lofty ideals of the classical notion of paideia, and the restatement of those principles in 1982 by Mortimer Adler and the paideia group remain an unfulfilled promise in terms of the actualities of public education in the United States. The notion of an educational system for all students built upon a rigorous curriculum manifesting a framework of values to be acted out in the public and democratic forum continues to have great attraction for educators. Indeed, the notion of paideia continues to carry a sense of urgency as it should. However, the actual task of creating systems devoted to these ideals has run headlong into a political labyrinth generated by the conflict between†¦show more content†¦The passion for testing (oftentimes observed as soundbites serving political ends ) runs counter to a farmboys common knowledge that you dont put weight on a hog by weighing it. This paper will attempt a dialectic exploring the models generating this tension and sugg esting an alternative view of a modern paideia. That original tension is illustrated in the Greek paideia, which not only contemplated the process of development of the human subject toward the good, but also venerated the influence of the object of learning; i.e., first the poetry of Homer, then the literature of Greece, then the total fine arts of the Greek culture. If we regard education as a process of shaping or forming, the object of learning plays the part of the mold by which the subject is shaped. The formative mold of early Greek paideia was Homer, and as time went on that role was expanded to Greek poetry at large. In the end, the word paideia meant Greek literature as a whole. (Jaeger 1961:91). Early Christians, hellenized and conversant in the use and didactic angularities of the Greek marketplace of education and dialogue, adopted the definition and implementation of paideia. As with Plato, Gregory of Nyssa, a pivotal figure in the early church, adopted as given that all human will and effort by nature was directed to achieve the

AssistedSuicide Right Or Wrong Essay Research Paper free essay sample

Assisted-Suicide Right Or Wrong Essay, Research Paper Assisted-Suicide Right or Incorrect Deciding when to decease and when to populate is an issue that has merely late begun to face patients all over the universe. There is an aged adult male lying in a infirmary bed, he merely had his 4th bosom onslaught and is in a relentless vegetive province. He is hooked up to a inhalator and has more tubings and IV # 8217 ; s traveling in and out of his organic structure everyplace. These sorts of state of affairss exist in every infirmary everyday. Should physicians or physicians be allowed to help patients, like this one, in decease? Even though, physician-assisted self-destruction is illegal in the U.S. , many physicians are assisting enduring patients die. Physicians should non supply interventions that have a low opportunity of wining, such as inhalators for patients in a lasting vegetive province. Rita L. Maker, an lawyer and executive manager of the International Anti-Euthanasia Task Force, believes # 8220 ; the argument International Relations and Security Network # 8217 ; t about the tragic, personal act of self-destruction, nor is it about attempted self-destruction # 8230 ; the current argument is about whether public policy should be changed in a manner that will transform prescriptions from toxicant into medical intervention # 8221 ; ( 45 ) . Oregon is the lone province that allows assisted self-destruction. A physician will order medicine and the druggist will state # 8220 ; be certain to take all of these pills at one time-with a light bite or alcohol-to induce decease # 8221 ; ( 45 ) . The provinces insurance companies pay for the medicine, which are paid for by Medicaid called # 8220 ; comfort attention # 8221 ; ( 46 ) . # 8220 ; Whether other provinces embrace Oregon-style attention will depend upon a willingness to carefully analyze what truly is at interest in this argument # 8230 ; about public policy # 8221 ; ( 46 ) . It does non count about your point of position on physician-assisted self-destruction ; it # 8217 ; s the layout and program that affairs. For illustration # 8220 ; Walter Dellinger, moving canvasser general, said # 8216 ; the least dearly-won intervention for any unwellness is deadly medicine # 8217 ; he was right. A prescription for a deathly overdose tallies about 30 five dollars # 8230 ; the patient won # 8217 ; t devour any more wellness attention dollars # 8221 ; ( Marker 46 ) . Whenever the economic system was involved at that place was ever a major hill to mount. Not to hanker ago patients were told to come in to acquire look into ups that were non necessary. All the infirmaries and clinics got paid back for everything they did to the patient. Finally, people became smarter and started to state no the unneeded interventions. Now their income relates to the information they provide, the less the better. Marker studies that in recent old ages # 8220 ; a important figure of health-maintenance organisations or HMO # 8217 ; s are # 8216 ; for-profit # 8217 ; endeavors where shareholder benefit, non patient wellbeing, is the bottom line # 8221 ; ( 47 ) . There are plans that allow doctors from stating the whole truth. The physician will state one thing when it truly means something different and normally it is for the worse. Not many people research into their medical coverage until they are ill. Once that happens you are non traveling to hold a hint what your program covers. Marker stresses that # 8220 ; holding a physician friend who would speak over a planned assisted-suicide before ordering a deadly dosage is nil more than a phantasy for the huge bulk of American # 8221 ; ( 48 ) . Today, if its a patients first visit it will be no longer than 20 proceedingss and if the patient returns its visit will be ten proceedingss. Another illustration is that some medical plans want physicians to non handle patients right a manner and will normally do a struggle. Marker points out # 8220 ; a study published in 1998 in the Archivess of Internal Medicine # 8230 ; found that physicians who are the most thrifty when it comes to medical disbursals would be six times more likely than their opposite numbers to supply a deadly prescription # 8221 ; ( 48 ) . If a doctor is truthfully against assisted-suicide he or she will offer every possible option to the patient. To sum it all up, Wesley Smith, an lawyer and consumer advocator, expresses # 8220 ; the last people to have medical attention will be the first to have assisted-suicide # 8221 ; ( qtd. in Marker 49 ) . If we embrace aided self-destruction as medical intervention, it will return our embracing with a decease clasp that is cold, barbarous and anything but compassionate # 8221 ; ( 49 ) . On the other manus, Marcia Angell, executive editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, it should non be a offense for physicians to esteem the wants of terminally sick patients who want aid in perpetrating self-destruction. She start of her statement by mentioning to a Supreme Court determination in which, # 8221 ; they found deceasing patient [ sic ] have no right to make up ones mind for themselves to cut short their agony by inquiring their physicians to order an overdose of kiping pills or painkillers. # 8221 ; The tribunal said it is the province legislatures mistake for holding Torahs on physician-assisted self-destruction. So the patient will non hold a pick if he or she wants to decease unless the province changes the Torahs. Angell claims that, # 8221 ; the Supreme Court missed the point: Death can be slow and agonizing, and some people merely want to acquire it over with. # 8221 ; The lone legal option patients have is if they desire their life support shut down. Too bad most patients are non on life support so they can non bespeak it ( 33-34 ) . Angell has no hint why the legislative assembly would do a patient suffer when he or she does non desire to endure any longer. She goes on pleading that this is the same pick the Supreme Courts allows when people abort their babes and when people get married. # 8220 ; Diing patients enduring intractably should hold the option of taking and overdose, merely as they have the option of turning off life supports # 8221 ; argues Angell. Even if the physician prescribed pills to the patient in most instances would non take them. But, due to the fact, that the patient had the option of taking the pills would do them happy. When the patient thinks the clip is right can take the pills in peace ( 34 ) . Doctors so would hold the option, excessively. No 1 would be # 8220 ; pressured to inquire for assisted self-destruction # 8230 ; [ or ] pressured to decline life supports # 8221 ; ( 34 ) . The Supreme Courts finding of fact was a whitewash against doctor-assisted self-destruction, 9-0. The justices # 8217 ; sentiments reasonably much all said # 8220 ; the impression that allowing doctor-assisted self-destruction would be excessively great a going from tradition, and besides, God alleviative attention should alleviate all agony # 8221 ; ( 34 ) . Angell concludes # 8220 ; compassionate physicians ever have helped deceasing patients to stop their lives # 8221 ; ( 34 ) . Even though this is all done under the tabular array, by the physician providing the patient with mass measures of a certain prescription. Merely if the physician is strong indoors and knows what the patients needs alternatively of wants so the physician should order a drug. She states that # 8220 ; polls systematically show about two-thirds of the public favour allowing doctor-assisted self-destruction # 8221 ; ( 35 ) . Finally she sums it all up by stating # 8220 ; sooner or later # 8230 ; the pattern will go legal, because deceasing patients need that pick and their physicians need to be able to assist them # 8221 ; ( 35 ) . Timothy E. Quill, M.D. , practising doctor, wrote this article in the New England Journal of Medicine, which pertains to helping person to decease. Diane, Quills # 8217 ; patient for eight old ages, was experiencing weak and had a jailbreak on her tegument. Quill did some blood work. Many old ages of Diane # 8217 ; s life was lost as an alcoholic and a down individual, but she fought her manner out of it ( 111 ) . Although the odds were against her, Quill let her be cognizant of the effects she would confront when they get the bone marrow trial back and what they would make if the consequences were non so good ( 111 ) . The trial came back and the oncologist diagnosed Diane with # 8216 ; acute myelomonocytic leukemia. # 8217 ; The oncologist wanted to set a Hickman catheter and get down chemo every bit shortly as possible. Quill recalled that # 8220 ; [ Diane ] was enraged at [ the oncologists ] given that she would desire T reatment, and devastated by the conclusiveness of the diagnosing. All she wanted to make was travel place and be with her household. She no farther inquiries about the intervention and in fact had decided that she wanted none†¦Ã¢â‚¬  ( 111 ) . Quill stated â€Å"I have been a longtime advocator of active informed patient pick of intervention or nontreatment, and of a patient’s right to decease with every bit much control and self-respect as possible† ( 111 ) . Quill was confused that Diane wanted to give up her 20 five per centum opportunity of life after she fought to get the better of alcohol addiction and depression. He knew that she would hold to alter her head, shortly ( 111 ) . Quill pointed out # 8220 ; it was inordinately of import to Diane to keep control of herself and her ain self-respect during the clip staying to her # 8221 ; ( 111 ) . Diane clearly told Quill that she wanted to decease. Quill used to be caput of a hospice plan, he knows how to maintain people from enduring utilizing different medicines, but Diane did non care. She wanted to decease in the easiest and least painful manner. Quill expressed that # 8220 ; I felt the effects of a violent decease # 8230 ; an uneffective self-destruction # 8230 ; the possibility that a household member would be forced to help her [ so ] the legal and reverberations that would follow # 8221 ; ( 112 ) . Diane continually informed her household with her picks and her household supported her on all her determinations. The Hemlock Society discussed any an all the jobs she faced. Diane called Quill seven yearss subsequently inquiring for kiping pills. Quill knew this is what the Hemlock Society encouraged and wanted to discourse this over with Diane once more. # 8220 ; She was holding problem kiping # 8230 ; I made sure that she knew how to utilize the barbiturates for slumber, and besides that she knew the sum needed to perpetrate suicide # 8221 ; Quill cautioned ( 112 ) . T hey promised each other they would see each other on a footing and before she took the pills ( 112-113 ) . The months in front were really strenuous. Her boy and hubby did everything at place to pass as much clip with her as they could. Besides, Diane # 8217 ; s best friends stopped by when they could ( 113 ) . Quill confirmed # 8220 ; bone hurting, failing, weariness, and febrilities began to rule her life # 8230 ; it was clear that the terminal was nearing # 8221 ; ( 114 ) . Diane phoned all her friends to inquire them to see her and state their # 8216 ; good byes. # 8217 ; She came to my office one last clip # 8220 ; it was clear the she knew what she was making, that she was sad and frightened to be go forthing, but that she would be even more panicky to remain and endure # 8221 ; ( 114 ) Quill enforced. A twosome yearss subsequently Diane # 8217 ; s hubby phoned me and said Diane passed off. She told her boy and hubby adieu and go forth her alone, an hr subsequently she was dead prevarication in her favourite cover. Quill called the medical tester and told him Diane died of # 8216 ; acute leukemia # 8217 ; ( 114 ) . Quill indicates that # 8220 ; I said # 8216 ; acute leukemia # 8217 ; to protect all of us, to protect Diane from invasion into her yesteryear and her organic structure, and to go on to screen society for the cognition of the grade of enduring that people frequently undergo in the procedure of deceasing # 8221 ; ( 115 ) . Quill concludes by praising that: Diane taught me about the scope of aid I can supply if I know people good and if I allow them to state what they truly want # 8230 ; about life, decease, and honestness and about taking charge and confronting calamity forthrightly when it strikes # 8230 ; that I can take little hazards for people that I truly cognize and care approximately. Although I did non help her in self-destruction straight, I helped indirectly to do it possible, successful, and comparatively painless. Although I know we have steps to assist command hurting and lessen agony, to believe that people do non endure in the procedure of deceasing is an semblance ( 115 ) . Betty Rollin, an employee at NBC News, wrote Last Wish, a book about her female parent # 8217 ; s decease, which this article goes back and tells the narrative of how she help assist-suicide upon her female parent. # 8220 ; Next to the felicity of my kids, I want to decease more than anything else in the universe # 8221 ; my female parent # 8217 ; s words [ spoke ] to me one late autumn afternoon to convert me that she truly meant it: She wanted to decease, and would I delight aid # 8221 ; ( 241 ) . Rollin reveals that # 8220 ; [ they ] did research [ and ] found out what it would take for her to decease # 8216 ; safely # 8217 ; ( 241 ) . Rollins female parents doctor wrote her out a prescription that would stop her life rapidly and peacefully. Rollin misses her really much and even if she runs through her head a tear will develop in her oculus every clip. Rollin does non expose any images of her female parent because she breaks down every clip she sees her female parents profile. The life her female parent was populating was awful. It was like she was in a room with no Windowss or doors, when she died it was like she got out of the room, and she was happy to acquire out. Rollin and her hubby were happy, besides ( 241-42 ) . Rollin wrote a book about her female parent the Last Wish, which was made into a telecasting film. She has received many letters that agreed with her and some that did non. The letters that did non hold with her, people wrote # 8220 ; decease by any individual # 8217 ; s manus is killing a life God created # 8221 ; ( 242 ) . Rollin pleads # 8220 ; but I still retrieve my female parent # 8217 ; s ain position. # 8216 ; God gave me a encephalon # 8230 ; and I # 8217 ; m glad its still working so that I can decease the privation I want to # 8221 ; ( 242 ) . A immature geriatric nurse wrote # 8220 ; I believe its physicians who can non cover with decease. They put the eating tubing in and walk off experiencing like heroes. They don # 8217 ; t want to cognize that the patient can # 8217 ; t talk, can # 8217 ; t travel, can # 8217 ; t do anything for herself. I # 8217 ; ve had patients implore me to assist them decease. I support euthanasia. Talk to nurses in gerontologies. They know the truth # 8221 ; ( 242-43 ) . The nurse conclude by stating # 8216 ; they know the truth, # 8217 ; what she means by this is people who are enduring and deceasing, want to decease. But they can non decease unless they have a small aid ( 243 ) . Rollin reveals that # 8220 ; I do non believe household members should be the 1s to assist a despairing individual dice. It happened to work out in my household # 8230 ; alternatively we desperately need is a jurisprudence that would let doctors to transport out the wants of a deceasing individual # 8221 ; ( 243 ) . Assisted-suicide Torahs must hold ordinances. The ordinances were passed a twelvemonth ago in Washington State. More ordinances will be submitted in California this November and it will state: # 8220 ; The patient must be mentally competent, must be declared terminally ill by two doctors, and must be able to revoke the determination at any clip # 8221 ; ( 243 ) . Michael White, a attorney and president of American Against Human Suffering, asked me to fall in him to talk in forepart of the American Bar Association ( ABA ) . We tried to the ballot of the ABA of physician-assisted self-destruction. They revoked our proposal ( 244 ) . Rollin claims that # 8220 ; there are people deceasing in infirmary beds # 8230 ; near the terminal of life, with nil in front but hurting and panic. They have a right to decease, if that # 8217 ; s what they truly want # 8221 ; ( 244 ) . The people against me talk about God and interfering with God # 8217 ; s creative activity. Don # 8217 ; t we interfere when we hook some one up to a inhalator to maintain so alive, exclaims Rollin ( 244 ) . Another ground assisted-suicide is good is to take away hurting, if deceasing patients have a pick to stop their life they wouldn # 8217 ; T, but cognizing they have a pick would set them at easiness and when they think it is the right clip to stop their life they can make so, merely like Rollins female parent did. Rollins mother took the prescription when she felt most comfy. Rollins concludes it by stating # 8220 ; times have changed # 8230 ; but finally, I can # 8217 ; t assist these people the manner I helped my female parent. What I can make is fall in the battle to alter the jurisprudence. It # 8217 ; s traveling to be a state-by-state conflict, and California is following up. I am wholly for physician assisted-suicide. Physicians should esteem the wants of their patients, even when the patient wants to decease. Decisions about how to decease are personal, private affairs that the authorities should remain out of. Diing patients should hold the right to take a quick, painless decease and physicians should be allowed to assist them accomplish it.

Revenue Recognition Issues in Telecom Industry Essay Example Essay Example

Revenue Recognition Issues in Telecom Industry Essay Example Paper Revenue Recognition Issues in Telecom Industry Essay Introduction The telecommunications industry had its own bizarre take on revenue recognition during the boom. From 1997 to 2000, Global Crossing took on over $7 billion of debt to lay 1. 7 million miles of fiber-optic cable to transport data via the Internet. When completed in summer 2001, the network spanned 27 countries and 200 major cities around the globe. The company’s debt load didn’t seem to faze investors—Global Crossing’s market capitalization reached $40 billion in 1999. But then other carriers entered the market, worldwide economic growth began to slow, and Internet usage, while growing fast, was not taking off quite as fast as company management had expected. As a result, demand for Global Crossing’s fiber-optic capacity began to wane. Fearing that deteriorating financial performance would cause its share price to collapse and call into question the company’s ability to service its debts, management began concocting revenue from capacity swaps with other carriers. In one such swap, executed in the first half of 2001, Global Crossing â€Å"sold† $100 million of capacity to Qwest Communications, which was also suffering a demand slowdown, while â€Å"buying† an equal amount of capacity from the same firm. The $100 million price tag was an essentially arbitrary value placed on the transaction by executives of both companies. The asset they were trading was unused fiber-optic capacity (known in the industry as â€Å"dark fiber†), for which there was no demand and for which there might be no demand for years to come. Revenue Recognition Issues in Telecom Industry Essay Body Paragraphs Nearly 20 percent of Global Crossing’s $3. 2 billion in revenue in the second quarter of 2001 came from capacity swaps. For the first nine months of 2001, such swaps accounted for $600 million of Qwest’s $15 billion in revenue. While the amount of the swaps appears modest as a percent of total revenue, it accounted for most of the company’s sales growth in that period. When the accounting treatment was questioned, Global Crossing defended itself by asserting that each leg of the trade was priced and contracted independently. But any reasonable interpretation of the deal would conclude that no real sale or purchase had taken place. Compounding the deception, Global Crossing, Qwest, and other telecom companies would record the sale of capacity as revenue without recording the offsetting purchase of capacity as an expense. Instead, the purchase was capitalized. Rather than being posted on the income statement as an expense, deductible immediately from earnings, it w as listed on the company’s balance sheet as a capital investment, its value being gradually reduced, or amortized, over several years. The maneuver increased reported profits by completely mischaracterizing the transaction, treating the payment of cash for capacity as if it were an investment instead of an expense. The telecoms can no longer disguise the fact that they already have more than enough fiber-optic capacity, and so do all their competitors. They can no longer pretend that swaps of this useless, unwanted commodity have any real value, any more than they can pretend that the fiber-optic capacity they own is still worth what they paid for it. They must acknowledge the reduced value—or impaired value, as accountants say—by reducing their earnings by an amount equal to the decline in value of their fiber-optic assets. And since the SEC ruled fiber-optic swaps invalid in 2002, the telecoms must also restate previous revenue and earnings reports pumped up b y swap transactions. For example, Qwest was required to reverse $950 million of revenue from capacity swaps. Another game the telecoms played was to generate revenue unrelated to the basic business and claim it as revenue generated in the ordinary course of business. For example, Qwest would purchase networking equipment from Cisco, which it would then resell, at a profit, to KMC, a company that built and maintained such networks. Then, over the course of several years, Qwest would return most of that money to KMC in the form of payments for servicing the network supported by the equipment. Such transactions, which the company justified as a means of speeding network development, contributed to Qwest’s sales growth, but it was quite a stretch to record their proceeds as revenue from the company’s core business of selling telecommunications capacity. Qwest had still more revenue-recognition tricks up its corporate sleeve, such as adjusting the publication date of its Ye llow Pages directories to shift revenue from one quarter to another. In fact, as a general rule, it’s safe to say that companies rarely play just one accounting game. Games tend to come in clusters, so when you spot one, remember the cockroach theory: If you see one, you can be pretty sure there are many more hiding in the dark. Once again, don’t make the mistake of thinking that revenue games are a purely American invention. The accounting firm Ernst Young analyzed 41 UK software firms and characterized the revenue-recognition practices of more than half of them as poor or very poor. And in 2002, the UK-based Vodafone, the world’s largest mobile phone operator, admitted to playing games similar to those played by Edison Schools and Professional Detailing. It booked all the revenue generated by wireless Internet services, even when it redirected a sizable portion of that revenue to third parties that actually provided the Internet content. Vodaphone’s pr actice stands in sharp contrast to that of rivals MMO2, the mobile business spun off by BT, and Orange, the mobile arm of France Telecom, both of which strip out of reported revenues any amount owed to third-party content providers. In its defense, Vodaphone says that the payments made to third parties are treated as cost of sales—that is, an expense—leaving gross profit and other profit measures unaffected by the practice. Besides, says the company, the amounts involved represent only a small percentage of overall group revenues. Then why bother with the practice at all? One answer suggests itself: By inflating revenue relative to major competitors, Vodaphone can report higher average revenue per user, a statistic (or metric, in business-speak) closely watched by telecom analysts. In response to the sort of gaming described in this chapter, the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 1999 issued Staff Accounting Bulletin 101. The agency issues such bulletins from time to time to address accounting questions thrown up by a new sort of transaction or a new sort of business—or, as in this case, to rein in marginal practices before they become mainstream. In this document, the SEC staff declared that revenue should not be recognized until it is â€Å"realized or realizable and earned. † To achieve this standard, all of the following criteria must be met: Persuasive evidence of a sales arrangement exists. If a particular company relies mainly on written sales contracts, such a contract must be in place and signed by the seller and the buyer before revenue can be recognized. Not only must customers signal intent to buy the product or service before revenue can be recognized, they must do so in a manner consistent with company or industry practice. Delivery has occurred or services have been rendered. In the case of goods, the risk and rewards of product ownership have been transferred and the buyer no longer has any right of return . In the case of services, the service has already been performed. Contractual obligations on the part of a customer to pay for services rendered or goods delivered in the future do not qualify. The selling price is fixed or determinable. Without such a price, there is no reasonable basis upon which to measure the amount of revenue to be recognized. Collection is reasonably assured. It should go without saying, but selling to a customer who might not have the financial means to pay is not a proper sale. The SEC’s bulletin didn’t just come out of the blue, of course. The agency’s staff prepared it specifically in response to the gross abuses of revenue-recognition rules that proliferated during the Internet boom. One of the most dangerous accounting games is played with a method known as â€Å"percentage of completion. † Popular in the construction industry, though used elsewhere, too, it allows companies to recognize revenue gradually over the life of a long-term project, instead of waiting, sometimes for years, until the project is complete. For example, if the total revenue to be earned from the project is expected to be $20 million, and 30 percent of the work was done this year, $6 million of revenue would be recognized in this year’s income statement. While this approach has important conceptual merits, it is widely subject to abuse. Percentage-of-completion accounting found its way into U. S. news in 2002, when Halliburton was accused of abusing the rules during the period when the Vice President of the United States, Richard Cheney, was CEO of the oilfield services firm. Like other firms with large, multiyear contracts, Halliburton recognizes revenue and profit on a percentage-of-completion basis. Since projects that run for several years often encounter unexpected costs, most contracts have cost-overrun provisions, which allow firms like Halliburton to increase their fees, as long as they can document the increased c osts and win client approval. Until Cheney’s tenure as CEO, Halliburton accounted for possible overruns in the most cautious and conservative manner possible, recording the increased fees only when the customer had explicitly agreed to pay them. But under Cheney, Halliburton adopted a new policy, recognizing fee increases as long as customer consent was merely anticipated. Most customers eventually approved the increases, but Halliburton’s haste to recognize revenue and profits in advance of customer approval raised questions that the company was using the accounting change to dress up its income statement. Its merger with Dresser Industries was pending, and improved financial results would help Halliburton extract the best possible terms for the deal. We will write a custom essay sample on Revenue Recognition Issues in Telecom Industry Essay Example specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Revenue Recognition Issues in Telecom Industry Essay Example specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Revenue Recognition Issues in Telecom Industry Essay Example specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer