Reading Charlie Hoffman’s XBRL Thought Experiment is a useful reminder that all the talk of global reporting transparency, comparability, benchmarking etc. depends on some hard practical realities. In fact, his proposed thought experiment will be horribly familiar to anyone who has been faced with the task of performing a financial consolidation in a globally diversified organization. What’s different about the challenge for XBRL is that whereas an organizational consolidation takes place within a (relatively!) homogenous organizational culture –  as Charlie points out - ‘global XBRL’ depends on the political will of various nationalities and their regulatory regimes. Something that can derail or drive forward  any experiment, thought or otherwise.