A. What is the trend in the United States concerning the future use by U.S. companies of IASB standards? (That is, will U.S. companies eve r be required to use IASB instead of FASB standards?). In your answer, please discuss any financial/economic trends in the past 6-7 years which may hasten the use of IFRS by U.S. companies. (If you miss this one, you either have not been reading the newspapers, or you are independently wealthy).

B. Briefly discuss any major joint efforts that are being made by the FASB and IASB to coordinate the promulgation of new standards. As an example, please consider accounting standards for financial instruments/derivatives (as per the problems that you did in QS 2 and 3). Very briefly discuss the differences between FASB standards and IASB standards regarding financial derivatives and the any efforts that are being made to reconcile the two.