问题如下：
Stereo Warehouse is a US retailer that offers employees a defined benefit pension plan and stock options as part of its compensation package. Stereo Warehouse prepares its financial statements in accordance with US GAAP.
Peter Friedland, CFA, is an equity analyst concerned with earnings quality. He is particularly interested in whether the discretionary assumptions the company is making regarding compensation plans are contributing to the recent earnings growth at Stereo Warehouse. He gathers information from the company’s regulatory filings regarding the pension plan assumptions in Exhibit 4 and the assumptions related to option valuation in Exhibit 5.
Exhibit 4. Assumptions Used for Stereo Warehouse Defined Benefit Plan
Exhibit 5. Option Valuation Assumptions
2. Compared to the reported 2009 financial statements, if Stereo Warehouse had used the same discount rate as it used in 2007, it would have most likely reported lower:
选项：
A.net income.
B.total liabilities.
C.cash flow from operating activities.
解释：
B is correct.
A higher discount rate (5.38 percent instead of 4.85 percent) will reduce the present value of the pension obligation (liability). In most cases, a higher discount rate will decrease the interest cost component of the net periodic cost because the decrease in the obligation will more than offset the increase in the discount rate (except if the pension obligation is of short duration). Therefore, periodic pension cost would have been lower and reported net income higher. Cash flow from operating activities should not be affected by the change.
考点：养老金会计的假设
解析 ： 首先要弄明白方向 ，用 5.38%代替 4.85%， discount rate变大了 ， 这是前提 ， 然后问2009年的会计科目的变化
A选项 ： discount rate变大 ，根据interest cost=PBO * discount rate, 当r上升，PBO下降 ， 但是r也上升了。理论上来说int cost总的变化是不确定的。 我们可以将PBO看作Bond，如果PBO距离到期时间较长，即duration较大，那么 利率上升一点点 ， 价格会下降很多 ， 因此discount rate上升一点点 ， PBO下降很多 ， 此时PBO的影响比discount rate影响更大 ，最后总的interest cost是下降的 ， 所以NI会变大。一般情况下，养老金的到期日都是较长的，除非题目中说明养老金马上到期。
B选项 ， 如果折现率变大了 ， 说明计算PV of the pension obligation的时候 ， 分母变大了 ， 那么折现的PV就会变小 ， 所以是lower total liability， 所以选B 。
C选项，养老金的假设是不影响现金流的。
老师这个养老金会计的假设改变，为啥不影响CF呢？如果我用了新的discount rate，会影响int cost啊，这不会影响CF吗？再比如我的改变引起了P.S.C的变化，也会直接影响expense啊，那就会影响CF吧？vesting period的改变应该不会影响CF吧？
