Refer to the following statement and answer the questions that follow:

'In an accrual accounting setting, altering policies by, for example, choosing to capitalise rather than expense an interest cost or using straight-line depreciation versus reducing balance, achieves nothing more than to shift the recognition of expenses from one period to another. Consequently, across time, such choices ought to count for little, if anything at all.'

a. On what basis might this have been argued?

b. What reasons are there to support the idea that the conclusion that has been reached may be overly simplistic?