Much of the dot-coms’ stock market value disappeared during the “tech wreck” of 2000, but the perceived mismatch between the informationintensive New Economy and traditional notions of assets persisted. Prominent accounting theorists argued that financial reporting practices rooted in
an era more dominated by heavy manufacturing grossly understated the value created by research and development outlays, which GAAP was resistant to capitalizing. They observed further that traditional accounting generally permitted assets to rise in value only if they were sold. “Transactions are no
longer the basis for much of the value created and destroyed in today’s economy,
and therefore traditional accounting systems are at a loss to capture much of what goes on,” argued Baruch Lev of New York University. As examples,he cited the rise in value resulting from a drug passing a key clinical test and from a computer software program being successfully beta-tested.
“There’s no accounting event because no money changes hands,” Lev noted.3