The subject of accounting, which for a long time was looked at askance and treated as a stepchild among courses in economics, has now come to be rather generally recognized as essential to the training of an economist, entirely aside from its place in business training. Courses in accounting now appear on the schedules of departments of economics in most of our universities and colleges. The reason for this is that economists have come to recognize that almost any kind of study of the working of economic forces in the business world of today requires, among other things, an understanding of (i) the manner in which the status of a business investment is commonly set forth, (2) the facts to be considered in determining the successfulness of a business investment, and its status at a given time, and (3) the type of information needed by the business manager as an aid in controlling the investment, and the methods by which such information may be gathered. But in spite of the growing recognition of the need for an understand? ing of these matters by the economist, it is still easy to find evidence in the writings, public addresses, and classroom utterances of some economists of high standing that these men have not given sufficiently careful consideration to the nature of a business investment and the