[The most widely-held securities in America (and also the world) during the 1920s were the stocks and bonds of Kreuger & Toll, Inc., a Swedish match conglomerate. The company was founded and headed by Ivar Kreuger. The reason Kreuger's securities were so popular was that they were sold in small denominations and paid high dividends. Dividends of over 20 percent annually were paid on both stocks and bonds. Unfortunately, these dividends were paid mostly out of capital, not profits. Kreuger was essentially operating a giant pyramid scheme, which was hidden from the investing public by Kreuger's insistence that financial statements not be audited. He preached a philosophy that secrecy was paramount to corporate success. The bankruptcy of the company in 1932 was the largest on record and resulted in numerous changes in financial reporting. Articles in magazines and newspapers kept Americans aware of the extent of the fraud scheme at the same time Congress was considering the passage of a federal securities law. Thus, the timing of the bankruptcy and the corresponding media coverage made it politically expedient to pass laws that would make it difficult for similar schemes to be successful in the future. Such laws were indeed passed, and the Congressional committee reports specifically refer to Kreuger. The hypothesis of this paper is that the Ivar Kreuger fraud contributed significantly to the passage of the securities acts.]

Reviews the book "Accounting and Industrial Relations," by Philip D. Bougen.

Comments on the article "Advertising Effectiveness and Accounting Policy," by A. Rashad Abdel-Khalik, published in the October 1975 issue of "The Accounting Review." Discussion on the topic of whether advertising costs should be capitalized or expensed when incurred; Effect of the isolation of expenditures by media; View that different models are necessary for different industries if advertising costs are to be matched properly to the resulting revenues; Use of awareness models in predicting advertising exposure; Importance of the use of regression equations for industry classes to the problem of determining the amount of advertising cost to capitalize.

Reviews the book "Accountancy Comes of Age: The Development of an American Profession, 1886-1940," by Paul J. Miranti Jr.

Reviews the book "A Common Body of Professional Knowledge for Internal Auditors: A Research Study," by Michael J. Barrett, Gerald W. Lee, S. Paul Roy and Leticia Verastegui.

Reviews the book "Intermediate Accounting," by Paul Danos and Eugene A. Imhoff.

Reviews the book "The CPA Examination," vol. 1, "Practice, Auditing and Theory," and vol. 2 "Suggested Solutions," by John Anderson and Robert Lentilhon.

The most widely-held securities in America (and also the world during the 1920s were the stocks and bonds of Kreuger & Toll, Inc., a Swedish match conglomerate. The company was founded and headed by Ivar Kreuger. The reason Kreuger's securities were so popular was that they were sold in small denominations and paid high dividends. Dividends of over 20 percent annually were paid on both stocks and bonds. Unfortunately, these dividends were paid mostly out of capital, not profits. Kreuger was essentially operating a giant pyramid scheme, which was hidden from the investing public by Kreuger's insistence that financial statements not be audited. He preached a philosophy that secrecy was paramount to corporate success. The bankruptcy of the company in 1932 was the largest on record and resulted in numerous changes in financial reporting. Articles in magazines and newspapers kept Americans aware of the extent of the fraud scheme at the same time Congress was considering the passage of a federal securities law. Thus, the timing of the bankruptcy and the corresponding media coverage made it politically expedient to pass laws that would make it difficult for similar schemes to be successful in the future. Such laws were indeed passed, and the Congressional committee reports specifically refer to Kreuger. The hypothesis of this paper is that the Ivar Kreuger fraud contributed significantly to the passage of the securities acts.