To ferret out financial reality, the wise investor/analyst must be part detective and part accountant. <strong>Earnings Magic and the Unbalance Sheet</strong> g... » 

To ferret out financial reality, the wise investor/analyst must be part detective and part accountant. Earnings Magic and the Unbalance Sheet guides readers through the maze of potentially misstated earnings and misleading accounting disclosures to determine the financial health of specific corporations. Emphasizing how business professionals can evaluate and restate annual reports and other public information, it provides a financial checklist for scoring accounting excellence and rating companies. The 30 firms making up the Dow Jones Industrial Average are analyzed and scored; Ds and Fs are given for AIG, Altria, and General Motors. A concise presentation of significant financial issues incorporates recent corporate scandals, and an earnings magic detection strategy reveals which factors signal potentially low earnings quality. «