Financialized accounts: A stakeholder account of cash distribution in the S&P 500 (1990–2005)

In this paper, we construct a financialized account of corporate restructuring in S&P 500 survivor firms where corporate transactions are accounted for at fair value or are marked to market. Accounting practitioners are preoccupied with the technical aspects of fair value reporting, but the outcome of absorbing wealth accumulation into corporate sector balance sheets is not simply a neutral technical issue. In financialized accounts blending current income and expenditure with capital market value amplifies the need to distribute cash to equity holders. In financialized accounts realignments generated by a product market downturn are magnified because value at risk and corrective restructuring will be wired into balance sheet fair value not historic cost.