Sixty-eight percent of CFOs have taken steps to boost employee morale in the midst of the economic crisis, according to a new survey, but 26 percent haven’t done anything.

Interactive data-tagging technology could assist government auditors in monitoring the spending done under the $700-billion-plus financial bailout plan.

The Internal Revenue Service has been spending tens of thousands of hours auditing nonprofit credit counseling agencies and ordering changes at the vast majority of them, according to newly released data.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board and its parent organization, the Financial Accounting Foundation, sent a comment letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission giving a thumbs-up to the proposed roadmap to International Financial Reporting Standards, but they urged more consultation and study.

The average settlement as a result of securities class-action litigation dropped more than 50 percent in 2008, to $31.2 million, according to a report from Cornerstone Research.

Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 charges in connection with a gigantic Ponzi scheme that swindled his clients out of up to $65 billion.

A trio of related companies have filed suit to stop the Securities and Exchange Commission from infringing the trademark of their auditing software product. Former SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said last August that the SEC would develop a new interactive financial statement filing system to replace its old Edgar system. The new system, known as Interactive Data Electronic Applications, or IDEA, would rely on Extensible Business Reporting Language, or XBRL, data tag technology, which the SEC is beginning to require large public companies to use for their filings.

American Institute of CPAs’ president and chief executive Barry Melancon reiterated his organization’s stance that fair value accounting was not a primary cause of the current economic distress and that the private sector — rather than Congress — should continue to set accounting standards.

Financial Accounting Standards Board Chairman Robert Herz was pressed to make changes in mark-to-market accounting standards in as soon as three weeks during a contentious congressional hearing.

The adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards in the U.S. looks to be increasingly in doubt.

Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen has tapped a CPA, Charles L. Harrison, to lead the state’s “implementation” of the stimulus funding it receives.

Michigan CPA firms Frank & Freedman and Hirsch, Subelsky & Associates have merged to form Frank, Hirsch, Subelsky & Freedman.

Accounting firm BDO Seidman anticipates that shareholder meetings this year will be dominated by concerns about excessive executive compensation, recession plans and credit concerns.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that accounting standards need to be modified to deal better with valuing illiquid assets.

Many financial executives in the U.S. have begun the initial stages of convergence with International Financial Reporting Standards at their companies, but early adoption in 2009 for qualifying companies will be difficult, if not impossible, due to the significant time requirements, according to a new report.

To help small and midsized accounting firms cope better with implementing international auditing standards, the International Federation of Accountants has published a “Guide to Quality Control for Use by Small- and Medium-sized Practices.”

The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants wants world leaders who attend the G20 summit next month to endorse International Financial Reporting Standards, and to leave fair value accounting alone.

Multiple generations are handling the economic crisis in very different ways.

So, do you get the feeling that American seniors will be living longer but on less money? Well, according to a new study from the Senior Economic Security Index, a new research project developed by the Institute on Assets and Social Policy at Brandeis University and Demos, a national public policy and research organization, some three out of four senior households lack the economic security needed to sustain them through their lives. The study points out that older Americans have experienced huge, negative financial shifts that now make it more difficult to enter retirement with sustainable economic security. In fact, 87 percent of all senior households are financially vulnerable when it comes to their ability to meet essential expenses and to cover projected costs over their lifetimes. It also notes that single households, African-American households, and Latino households are the most likely groups of seniors to be financially vulnerable. Particular areas of vulnerability include: *45 percent of seniors households spend nearly a third of their income on housing while 31 percent either rent or have no home equity to draw on in tough times *40 percent of senior households spend more than 15 percent of their income on healthcare *One in three senior households has no money whatsoever left over after meeting essential expenses *More than half of senior households (some 54 percent) do not have sufficient financial resources to meet median projected expenses based on their current financial net worth, projected Social Security, and pension incomes. However, it’s not all doom and gloom. Tatjana Meschede, lead author of Living Longer on Less: The New Economic (In)Security of Seniors, says that “Even in their current precarious state, it is important to note that today’s seniors are better prepared for retirement than subsequent generations will be. They have benefited from pensions, jobs with significant retirement benefits, and a stronger social safety net than subsequent generations will enjoy.” But, left unchanged, the report points out that the current decline in employer-based retirement savings, the weakening of Social Security and Medicare, and rising debt experienced by younger Americans will add up to even greater vulnerability as they retire, “Younger generations who face historically low savings rates, declining assets, and an unsure future for their retirement accounts and Social Security itself, must urge our policy leaders to take action to strengthen the security of today’s seniors and to ensure their own,” says Jennifer Wheary, a co-author of Living Longer on Less. For more information and to download the report, go to iasp.brandeis.edu and demos.org.

The internal audit function has become crucial to helping companies cope with the economic crisis and complex regulatory requirements, according to a new guidebook.