"The Securities and Exchange Commission may let large U.S. companies switch to international accounting rules in six years, a step it says will lower compliance costs and make American firms more competitive.

SEC commissioners today approved a ``road map'' that might allow corporations with market values exceeding $700 million to abandon U.S. accounting standards by 2014. Under the plan, about 110 U.S. companies that are global leaders in their industries may move to international rules as soon as 2010.

``A global set of high-quality accounting standards would be an international language of disclosure, transparency and comparability,'' SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said at an open meeting in Washington. ``It's a goal worth pursuing.''

Meshing U.S. regulations with rules adopted by other countries is a priority for the agency, which has said companies will be able to reduce expenses by eliminating duplicate accounting. Investors will benefit because they ultimately bear the burden of higher compliance costs, SEC officials argue.

Critics, such as U.S. Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat who heads a subcommittee that oversees the SEC, have said the agency may put investors at risk by outsourcing its oversight to less-aggressive regulators......."

more via BLOOMBERG
http://www.bloomberg.com/avp/avp.htm?clipSRC=mms://media2.bloomberg.com/cache/vnSDDezhP0rc.asf

Note: BE CAREFUL BUYING SOME STOCKS OF BIG CAPS TO SMALL CAPS.

New Text Books should be written on Accounting, Market Analysis for Public Schools. What Public Schools teach & where MARKET is going, they don't match...