The problem of the missing intangible

Professor Baruch Lev’s life-time quest concerns the accounting treatment of intangibles and research development (R&D). His argument, in a nutshell, is that the current treatment of intangibles and R&D in financial statements misinforms investors regarding the value income and assets. The consequence is to destroy financial statement comparability for investors and cause a misallocation of society’s economic resources. This paper contends that it is time to take Professor Lev’s project to the next level. Advocacy and indignation are no longer sufficient to effect the kind of changes that Professor Lev seeks. This paper explores new paths to bring these changes about.