Reviews the book "Management Information and Statistical Method," by L.W. Shaw.

Reviews the book "The Financial Executive and The New Accounting," by Maurice E. Peloubet.

In this article the author comments on the critical review of one of his articles by George J. Staubus. He states that he has been at some pains to point out that more than one kind of information is necessary to every choice, and that monetary magnitudes of quite different types are necessary. According to him there are the monetary magnitudes of the assets and equities a firm has at any time. Then there are the monetary magnitudes obtained by discounting the expected cash inflows and outflows from proceeding in the same way as up to the point of choice, and from every alternative course which seems to be feasible at the point of choice. There is no problem of dealing in money and goods in a deliberate and informed manner for which both types of magnitudes are not necessary. Among the things an investor might expect to know are the rates of return earned by the two companies, their liquidities or degrees of solvency, and their leverages. The author concludes that for any choice between holding an asset and acquiring another, whether by managers or investors, current cash equivalents of the assets held enter into the statement of conditions for informed choice.

The question at issue is whether the addition of inventory-cost-of -sales accounting improves upon flow measurements of the success of business activities computed without knowledge of inventory balances. The most familiar concept of net asset flows is earnings for their use, earnings as reported to shareholders, after deducting dividends on preferred stock. Another pair of flow concepts that are similar, except that one requires inventory accounting, are current flows and quick flows. Current flow is equal to earnings plus depreciation, depletion and amortization of noncurrent assets; it is approximately equal to the accountants' concept of working capital flow from activities reported on the income statement, or the security analyst's "cash flow." Acquisition costs (purchases) of inventoriable goods are deducted in its computation. Depreciation, etc., affects neither current flow nor quick flow. When current flow is computed by adding depreciation, etc., to reported earnings, nonrecurring charges and credits are sometimes included.

Relationships between accounting methods, accounting information, and business decision-making are largely unexplored. Hypotheses developed here relate the user of accounting information, the relevance of accounting information for decisions, the decision-maker's conception of accounting, and other information available, to the effect of accounting information on decisions. No tests of the hypotheses have been made and additional research is warranted.

Reviews the book "Management Services by Accounting Firms," by William E. Arnstein.

Reviews the book "Cost Accounting: Principles and Practice," 7th ed., by John J.W. Neuner and Samuel Frumer.

Reviews the book "Computers in Business: A Fortran Introduction," by Robert E. Malcom and Malcolm H. Gotterer.

Reviews the book "Dividend Policy and Enterprise Valuation," by James E. Walter.

Reviews the book "Research Report 43, Financial Analysis to Guide Capital Expenditure Decisions."