[Texasforever]

Of course they are quantified. Halliburton is at peril if it allows change notices to go un-counted and booked as receivables. Halliburton spends REAL money and builds REAL things. It is not a "stock" driven company in the same way as Enron or a vapor-service scam. Halliburton cannot create profits; it can only build real things at a profit. If Halliburton does not win major projects there is NO way to make it look as if it did and hide it from the shareholders. I guess the simple answer is that if you build houses there is no way to claim you have the money from houses that you did not build. There are about 10 major firms like Halliburton worldwide fighting tooth and nail for about 100 major petro-chemical projects worldwide per year. The success of that effort is what drives stock prices NOT accounting tricks.

[Torie]

Well then this brouhaha should have a short half life if you are right, maybe not with the usual suspects, but with those with adjudicatory authority. You are positing that absolutely nothing is there; Halliburton simply decided to add up and book its change orders signed off by the client for work previously performed prior to collecting the cash. That would be a real snoozer. I suspect maybe some of those change orders might not have been signed off on, but Halliburton thought were meritorious. That is just a wild guess.