International Standards. The Accounting Web reports the chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board pushes for a global set of accounting standards, but realizes the difficulties in swaying the FASB and the U.S. Congress.

All the countries would enjoy a positive economic spin-off under a single set of standards. Foreigners will be more likely to invest if a predictable set of rules were in place, he said.

That way, it doesn't matter whether a transaction takes place in Brisbane or Beijing or Brussels or Boston, it would be accounted for in the same way, Tweedie has said. Tweedie, however, finds one set of rules is no easy sell. The IASB has met with strong resistance and political interference, not to mention the difficulties in meshing the U.S. standards with the pending international set of rules.