SEC Staff Recommends Principles-Based Accounting System
The staff of the Securities and Exchange Commisssion is pushing adoption of a new "principles-based" system of accounting standards. More at the SEC.

While there's little proof that "principles-based" rules would have prevented any of the Enrons of the past few years, there's no disagreement that shifting to a new system of accounting would generate new and untold amounts of work for corporate lawyers and accountants. And even then, it might take another generation for courts and juries to sort it all out.

Only the study is required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Don't hold your breath waiting for it to actually happen.

The most important principles are not in the accounting rules, but in the integrity of the individuals using them. Maybe we should be talking not of "principles," but of "principals."