Over the past decade, one of the primary issues surrounding financial statement disclosures centered on the transparency of information. Decision-makers and other users of financial statement information continue to

argue this point, that is, more transparency is needed. They claim that company management has too much flexibility in what to report and what not to report. Additionally, they have too much leeway regarding accounting alternatives.

Do you agree or disagree with the transparency argument? More specifically, do you think management should have the authority to choose among varying accounting alternatives because the amount of disclosures currently required under U. S. GAAP represents a sufficient amount of transparency? Or, do you think that more is needed and reducing the amount of alternatives may prevent or mitigate management abuses? What do you think?