However, beyond the smokestack, looking at the full life-cycle accounting for carbon of various biomass feedstocks, other reports have found that the source of the feedstock matters.

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Moreover, fair-value accounting appears to play a part in the upswing of a cycle as well as in the downswing.

ECONOMIST: An accounting standard comes under the microscope

Recent changes in accounting rules will amplify this, because it has become harder for banks to spread the building of reserves over the cycle.

ECONOMIST: Bank losses: A Citi situation | The