Outback Steakhouse CFO Quits Because of the Regulatory Environment

Prof. Gordon Smith (Wisconsin) on the Conglomerate Blog has an interesting post about the resignation of Outback Steakhouse's CFO, Bob Merritt, who blamed the current regulatory environment for his decision to resign.  Gordon writes(here):

The more we hear about the problems associated with financial reporting, the more this looks like a problem for which fingers can justifiably point in all directions. Merritt takes aim at auditors and "regulatory and other bodies" (a reference that is probably intended to include FASB, Congress, and the SEC). Why stop there? Certainly Merritt's own colleagues -- America's CFOs -- also deserve a share of the blame. And while many corporate managers are being demonized unfairly, there are plenty of genuine bad actors in that crowd, too.

Gordon's post contains a link to Merritt's full statement about his reasons for resigning, including a diatribe about lease accounting, one of the truly thrilling accounting issues.(ph)