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Life Insurance Saving of American Families

The Review of Economics and Statistics 1944 26(2), 93
LN I935 and I936 American families paid out each year about 2.8 billion dollars for net life insurance premiums. In estimating the saving of American families for I935-36, the National Resources Committee 1 assumed that ioo per cent of such premiums constitute saving. Dr. Rufus S. Tucker has criticized this assumption,2 stating that it is not correct since part of the payments go to cover current protection and costs of collection and administration. After consultation with insurance experts, Tucker estimated that instead of ioo per cent, the proportion of such premiums that add to saving was 67 per cent in the case of families with incomes over $2500 a year, 62'2 per cent in the case of families with incomes between $I500 and $2500, and 6o per cent in the case of poorer families. It is true that of the 2.8 billion dollars paid for net premiums about i.o billion went to pay death losses in excess of reserves and to cover other costs. However, Tucker neglected to take account of interest credited to policy-holders during this period which amounted to about 0.7 billion dollars. The increase of assets of the policy-holders was then 2.5 billion dollars, or nearly 90 per cent of net premium payments to the insurance companies. This percentage is closer to that assumed by the N. R. C. than to that assumed by Tucker, which averaged about 6 I per cent. On the other hand, as Tucker pointed out in a letter to the author, if insurance interest is included in saving (as it certainly should be), it should presumably be included in income; 3 and this the N. R. C. failed to do. However, the omission of this item from income of individuals makes a difference of only i per cent, whereas its omission from saving makes a difference of about iO per cent. The proportion of a given insurance premium that constitutes saving depends, of course, upon the type of policy, the age of the insured at issue, the age of the policy, the interest rate, and also upon the Company. For any particular case the proportion is simply the ratio of the increase in cash value, as given in the policy, to the net annual premium. I am indebted to B. F. Blair, Actuarial Assistant to the Provident Mutual Life Insurance Company, for the following figures for the ratio of increase in cash value during 1936 to net annual premium, for policies issued 5, io, and 20 years previously to men 25, 35, and 45 years old:

TRAINING FOR THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTING PROFESSION.

The Accounting Review 1944 19(2), 150-159
Abstract Training for the public accounting profession is a continuing process. An accounting curriculum that is not up to date and does not provide men who are qualified to meet the current problems of public accounting practice is one to be avoided at all costs. Many public accounting firms today show more real concern over their social responsibilities and opportunities for real service to business than could be found in a group of typical accounting professors. The leading public accounting firms are today looking for men who have been broadly trained, who have a full understanding of the social responsibilities and standards of conduct which are required of those who enter the public accounting profession, and who are qualified to render to clients real services far beyond the scope of the ordinary audit. The author thinks that the public accounting profession may now be at that stage of growth and maturity where it would be glad to have the teaching profession provide training for various levels of public accounting responsibility and a limited amount of training along more specialized lines.

COST PRINCIPLES IN TERMINATION SETTLEMENTS.

The Accounting Review 1944 19(4), 422-430
Abstract Accounting is involved in practically every stage of termination. This must necessarily be so, since accounting is the science of income determination and capital valuation. Whenever profits or values are involved accounting is a must. In termination settlements, the government has adopted a liberal and practical attitude. Accounting principles need not always be rigidly applied in the final settlement. Cost principles governing termination settlements are not applied in the same manner as in settling claims under cost-plus-fixed-fee contracts or facilities contracts. The settlements are more liberal. Furthermore, termination settlements are not complicated like income tax and renegotiation. It is the desire of the government in the U.S. that war contractors, receive speedy and equitable final settlement of claims under terminated war contracts. This desire is expressed by the U.S. Congress in the Contract Settlement Act of 1944 which became effective on July 21, 1944. Provisions in the Act indicate the determination of the government to be fair and square in the settlement of terminated war contracts.

EDWARD JONES'S 'ENGLISH SYSTEM OF BOOKKEEPING'

The Accounting Review 1944 19(4), 407-416
Abstract In 1796, writer Edward Jones's "The English System of Book-keeping" was published in Bristol. The first edition contains a list of over 4,000 subscribers resident in all parts of Great Britain. The Bank of England and the Honourable East India Company each subscribed for five copies. The author is said to have profited to the extent of 25,000 pounds from his invention. His system is stated to have been widely used in both Great Britain and the U.S. It gained an international reputation in a short while, and is probably the only English work on accounting. The publication of the book was preceded in 1795 by "An Address to Bankers, Merchants, Tradesmen and others, intended as an introduction to a New System of Book-keeping." This address contents reproduced as an Introductory Address in the main work, sets out in the author's compelling style faults, demerits and positive dangers of the existing bookkeeping methods, both by single and double entry, without so much as giving a foretaste of the magnificent new system about to be made known to the long suffering commercial world.

International Commodity Arrangements

Quarterly Journal of Economics 1944 58(4), 521
Scope of the paper: agricultural products chiefly, 521. — Present stage of developments, 522. — Existing commodity agreements: wheat, 523; coffee, 527; beef, 528; sugar, 528; tea, 530; non-agricultural products, 530; cartels, 531. — Buffer stocks, 532. — Wider distribution of food, 534. — Production adjustment, 536. — Chronic surpluses, 538. — Price stabilization: direct control schemes, 540; costs, 542.— Price lifting: tendency, 543; supporting prices, 544; desirability, 546. — The immediate postwar outlook, 547.— Conditions of success, 549. — Overhead organization, 551.

DICKINSON LECTURES IN ACCOUNTING.

The Accounting Review 1944 19(2), 212-213
Abstract The Arthur Lowes Dickinson Fund was established in January, 1929, at the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration by the firm of Price, Waterhouse & Company, in recognition of the debt due by the accounting profession in general, and particularly by this firm, to a former partner, Arthur Lowes Dickinson. The income from this fund was for a number of years used exclusively for the purpose of conducting research in the field of accounting. In 1936, terms of the Fund were modified to provide that in addition there may from time to time be appointed, for one year, a man outstanding in accounting who shall deliver at the Graduate School of Business Administration one or more lectures, and shall be designated as Dickinson Lecturer. Professional standing comes not so much as a result of claims as it does from works of such character that professional standing is conceded by the public, and one of the tributes paid by the public is recognition of the fact that the subject matter in the field of the group in question deserves a place in the higher educational program which the public, through gift or taxation, supports.