Tom Rachman Quotes

When I take a look at a company's annual report, if I don't understand it, they don't want me to understand it.

Accounting is the language of business.

I've always been covered by a press that's mostly financial press.

Accounting does not make corporate earnings or balance sheets more volatile. Accounting just increases the transparency of volatility in earnings.

There are no accounting issues, no trading issues, no reserve issues, no previously unknown problem issues.

I know that there was a public disclosure mechanism in my financial forms.

The U.S. government uses cash accounting. That is illegal for any enterprise of any size in America except for the U.S. government. Every for-profit business, every not-for-profit business, every state and local government has to use real accounting except for Uncle Sam.

With 950 reporters and 79 bureaus, Bloomberg competes to break news with Dow Jones, Reuters and Bridge News along with newspaper Web sites, dozens of smaller Internet sites, and even gossipy chat rooms.

The Federal Reserve ranks among the most transparent central banks. We publish a summary of our balance sheet every week. Our financial statements are audited annually by an outside auditor and made public. Every security we hold is listed on the website of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

I've been a financial journalist for 30 years.

One thing I detest most about the financial press is the lack of accountability. All sorts of nonsense is said without penalty.

Broadcasts from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange have propelled once-obscure financial journalists such as Maria Bartiromo to celebrity status and made CNBC to investors what ESPN is to sports fans.

I would say that my whole career is effectively trying to be a storyteller within the context of financial news.

If I could only follow one person on Twitter, it would be Heidi Moore. She's a financial journalist at NPR's Marketplace.

What happens to a private company that comes out with a quarterly report and an annual report? It gives transparency. It talks of basic issues of governance and transactions with related parties.

I was, as president and chairman of the board, required by law to verify the veracity of the financial figures, the assets under management, the number of outstanding shares, et cetera.

I worked at CNBC for several years.

To us, the definition of philanthropy is what we spend. A P&L account means expenditure, lines of revenue. There is a surplus; it goes to the balance sheet. A transparent foundation should disclose this.

I've already written a section in the annual report for next year explaining why I think in one case that the figures on our balance sheet as calculated are wrong. But it's the standard way of doing it. It's holy writ. The SEC wants us to do it that way, and we'll do it that way, and I'll explain why I think it's wrong and shareholders can read it and see whether they agree with my logic or don't.

I don't mean to sugarcoat the figure on restatements, but I think it is positive - it shows a healthy system. The general impression of the public is that accounting rules are black and white. They are often anything but that, and in many instances the changes in earnings came after new interpretations by the chief accountant of the SEC.

You have to know accounting. It's the language of practical business life. It was a very useful thing to deliver to civilization. I've heard it came to civilization through Venice which of course was once the great commercial power in the Mediterranean. However, double entry bookkeeping was a hell of an invention.

I was at CNBC for 20 years. I felt really great about covering the stock market, being on the floor, watching the daily knee-jerk reactions to the stock market..but the last three years, being at Fox, I've grown. I've learned more.

You learn a lot from financial disclosure. And you should go down and take a look at that.

I call it the Rule of Three. If you read a company's financial statements three times, and you still can't figure out how they make their money, that's usually for a reason.

I will be the first to admit that I've made my own mistakes when it comes to Virginia's disclosure requirements.