Knowledge that Transforms

Reviews the book "Fundamentals of Accounting," by Harry H. Wade.

Abstract The rules of ethics of the American Institutes of Accountants are clear and reasonable statements of principle, as are the various resolutions which amplify them. Their actual application, however, is not always equally clear, as this generally demands close and careful analysis of a complicated situation to which the Committee on Ethics and the Council of the Institute must apply their mature and impartial judgment. The article presents a brief explanation of the rules of professional conduct of the American Institutes of Accountants. This explanation is necessarily incomplete and is only intended as an indication of the sort of cases which fall under the different rules. For mostly, rigid rules of professional conduct are not really necessary, but there are always unfortunate brothers who either lack a keen perception of what a professional man's attitude should be or are interested only in sailing close to the wind as possible. It is against these that the rules must be enforced and they must be enforced by the men for whom they are not necessary.

Reviews the book "Legal Provision Affecting Real Estate Tax Delinquencies, Tax Sales, and Redemptions," by M.H. Hunter.

Reviews the book "What is Money?," by Victor S. Clark.

Reviews the book "Federal Tax Handbook," by Robert H. Montgomery.

Reviews the book "Practical Business Statistics," by Frederick E. Croxton and Dudley J. Cowden.

Reviews the book "Taxation Issues," by M. Slade Kendrick.

Abstract The recent creation of a new form of business incorporation in France, same as the corresponding differentiation of forms in Germany and Great Britain, has followed the development of protective devices set up in the interest of the general public. First, in the historical view, one can witness the development of easy incorporation by mere procedure. Second, safeguards have been developed, applicable to all corporations, but safeguards which were particularly directed toward those problems which arise when there is an appeal to the general public for investment funds, safeguards for bond holders and other creditors against the whole proprietary group, and for shareholders against promoters and managers. Third, there has occurred a relaxation of control devices of the second class, a relaxation based on the idea that fewer safeguards are needed when the intra-corporate relations of the members are intimate and private. It is not the function of this paper to trace in detail the steps in this process of competition. Suffice it to say that two important processes took place, the one with respect to the utilization of the limited partnership, the other with respect to that of the corporation.

Abstract Two opposing hypotheses attempt to explain the effects of inflation upon business enterprise. The first maintains that business profits by inflation due to the rise in prices which it engenders. The second affirms that inflation is a grave danger to business, gutting enterprises of their working capital. The first of these two hypotheses has recently been attacked by a number of German and French accounting theorists who have attempted to demonstrate that the standard accounting calculation of profits does not give accurate results during periods of rapidly changing prices. The second hypothesis is indeed most seductive, but, unfortunately, it has never been verified by a positive study of the facts. The object of this study is to investigate quantitatively the extent to which the one or the other of these theories found application in the French inflation of 1919-1926 and to discover the net effects of inflation upon the financial position of French enterprises. Several factors such as reconstruction, tariffs, improved industrial techniques, have all played an important part in these changes.

Reviews the book "Economic Cycles and Crises, an American Plan of Control," by William C. Schluter.