“The easy answer is ‘no’,” according to Michael Mard, one of eleven appraisers on the FASB’s Valuation Resource Group (VRG).  Mard, who spoke on a fair value panel with Yassir Karam and moderator Jim Hitchner at the AICPA BV conference, also said that the Financial Accounting Board may not be listening to auditors or CFOs, either.  After the release of SFAS 157, the Board was “getting inundated with questions,” Mard explained.  They wanted to structure the guidance, hence the formation of the VRG.   But when they started hearing that businesses were not ready to comply with 157 requirements—and the VRG suggested postponement—the Board basically said, “too bad.”  As reported in last week’s BVWire, after some discussion, the Board rejected a blanket postponement of 157’s effective date, granting a one-year deferral only for non-financial assets, to align with the expected effective date of 141R (which is still due for release “any day,” Mard said).  Of the $141 trillion currently at play in the U.S. economy, 60% is invested in public companies.  “The markets are going nuts over this,” he added, referring to the controversy caused by FASB pronouncements.  “Sarbanes-Oxley was just a warm-up.”