Seminar: Accountants can change the world
Posted by Toby York. Last updated: October 6, 2022
Accounting Cafe seminar series hosted on Zoom on 8 July 2021
Dr Todd Sayre believes that accounting is not only broken but is contributing to the destruction of the planet. He is calling on accounting academics to help fix this.
In this seminar he gives a broad sweep of the history of corporations from the East India Company to the modern day questioning current accounting orthodoxies along the way. Entity theory, the role of shareholders and the rightful claimants of retained earnings come under ferocious scrutiny.
This was a provocative, fascinating and entertaining session that challenged how accounting and accountants are generally perceived.
Photo: University of California
| Starts | Content | |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00 | Welcome to Accounting Cafe | |
| 03:23 | Introduction to Dr Todd Sayre | |
| 04:44 | Dr Todd Sayre outlines the scope of the seminar | |
| 07:20 | How does financial reporting destroy the world? | |
| 11:57 | How can accountants help to save the world? | |
| 12:10 | –– (1) Is the corporation an association of shareholders? | |
| 18:22 | –– (2) Do shareholders have rights to accumulated profits less dividends? | |
| 24:46 | –– (3) Do shareholders collectively control management? | |
| 32:44 | –– (4) How should reports portray shareholders? | |
| 35:39 | A historical persepctive of the causes of confusion in how shareholders are conceived. |
Seminar recording (registration required)
Draft paper: Accounts are helping to destroy the world, but they could help to save it
[…] Note 2: Dr Todd Sayre presented a draft paper “Accountants are Helping to Destroy the World, but They Could Help to Save it” at an Accounting Cafe seminar in July 2021. It’s well worth watching: https://accountingcafe.org/2021/07/08/changetheworld/. […]