In this paper a distinction is drawn between national income statistics and social accounting, despite the close relation that exists between the two fields. The former field is viewed as being concerned with compilation and publication of isolated aggregate figures such as national income or gross national product which purport to provide over-all pictures of a nation's total economic activity. The latter field is concerned with details of structure and intra-sector flows in the context of a double-entry system of accounts. As a proper part of the system of social accounts various national income statistics may be synthesized. The purpose of a national system of accounts is to provide information concerning the economic activity of a country in concise and comprehensive fashion. This requires a systematic method of classifying economic transactions. This may be done in a variety of ways. One classification may be by type of economic activity, another classification may be by type of economic function and the formation of capital.

Reviews the book "Mathematics of Investment," by Paul R. Rider and Carl H. Fischer.

Accounting and auditing personnel of the U.S. Department of Defense constantly receive suggestions from accountants, from its contractors and their trade association representatives and from procurement personnel within the Department that its contracts should only place an obligation on its contractors to maintain an accounting system in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and practices. The purpose of this article is to consider these suggestions and to indicate the accounting and auditing problems facing the Department of Defense in connection with its procurement contracts. Cost-type contracts require most contract costs be readily ascertainable. Generally accepted accounting principles provide standards for the evaluation of the financial position of an enterprise and for the measurement of income and expense over a given period of time. Fixed price contracts may also incorporate an incentive feature. Under this type of contract a unit target price is agreed upon during the initial negotiations with the contractor. The usual annual audit by independent auditors is directed toward the determination of the reliability of management's representations contained in the client's financial statements. The major audit effort is placed on balance sheet items with somewhat less emphasis on income and expense accounts.

The article discusses the present outlook of accounting students in accountancy. The article asserts that accounting practitioners are ever on the alert for promising neophytes, hence graduates of collegiate schools of business are reasonably certain of positions, and, the immediate monetary reward is considerably higher to a beginner than it was in the decade next preceding the Second World War. Chances for promotion, too, are better than heretofore because of the internal growth of accounting firms, and the diversification of clientele activities that offers chances for specialization. As always, advancement depends upon the aptitude of, and the interest displayed by, the employee. Interest may be shown by close observation while auditing, and later offering suggestions to the staff leader for improvements in clients' accounting systems, and for procedural changes in the audit programs to conform with altered conditions in the concerns under audit. Also, the acquisition of the certified public accountant certificate is an indication of sincerity in the decision to make public accounting a career.

The undergraduate accounting student generally faces his first main experiences with the practical facts of accounting life in the course in report writing. He meets reality somewhat, of course, in such studies as auditing and taxation, but, in the main, he has been concerned primarily with theoretical concepts. He has not faced the necessity ordinarily, for example, of preparing realistic, complete, and formal communications for actual readers with vested interests. The aim of the report writing course thus becomes one of generating dear and comprehensive understanding on the part of students as to the purposes, scope, and manner of presentation of reports by independent public accountants. Personal experience has indicated that the most effective approach to realistic student comprehension of the "whole" report has been through the direct use of actual reports prepared by practicing accountants. Visual aids have provided the medium by which such reports could be handled practically in the classroom.

In the July 1952, issue of the "Accounting Review,"under the title "Some Notes on the Bond Yield Problem," the author discussed the application of a modified or improved Newton's correction formula to the problem of finding the accurate yield on a bond, the improved formula having been briefly set forth in an earlier paper by Hugh E. Stelson,' who had drawn it from one of the mathematical journals. This article includes the continuation of numbers of formulas and equations herein from where they stopped in the preceding article. With serial bonds, the problem of finding the initial approximation to the yield rate is more acute than it is with a single bond. This article also discusses the matter appearing in the thirteen pages of Mr. FitzGerald's article in the "Accounting Review," for January, 1953, on accounting for variations in gross profit.

There can be no doubt that administrative agencies have been a significant influence in the development of the accounting concept during most of the last half century. To the very considerable extent that they have enforced recognition of the interests of unorganized or inarticulate groups, and have accelerated progress in accounting thinking their influence can only be regarded as beneficial and their continued existence desirable. To the extent that they have curtailed freedom of thought in accounting matters or have kept accounting in outdated molds or have required observance of principles well suited for limited purposes but ill-suited for most uses, their influence must be regarded as hurtful. On balance, it seems probable that accounting thought and practice has progressed farther and faster under the stimulus of such agencies than it would otherwise have done.

Mergers give the concept of big business. The combining of accounting firms of moderate size with others to become a nationally known organization can lead certified public accountants away from professional status. In the mind of the layman, the practitioner of a profession is one who gives personal attention to the intimate affairs of a client or a patient, and although some actual service may, as in the case of public accountants, be delegated to staff assistants, yet the client of the smaller firm is acquainted with, and feels he has the personal interest of, one of the principals. It may be said that the same relationship can be continued under the new firm name, and it is true there are clients who may like the idea of the larger organization, but there are a great many persons who do not desire information concerning their private affairs to be in the flies of a widespread copartnership. Public accounting has come a long way in the past fifty years and enjoys a well earned high place in the public esteem, but if big business with all that description connotes, is the aim of many of its practitioners, then all pretense to professional rating should be dropped. Merely to state that a vocation is a profession does not make it such. Actions speak louder than words.

Reviews the book "Studies in Income and Wealth., vol. 15.

The article highlights that in problems in the mathematics of finance where it may be desired to find an unknown rate of interest, a uniformity of approach to approximation formulas of considerable accuracy can be achieved for the three fundamental functions and their inverse functions, and also for the bond function, by means of the concept of the total interest growth over the term of the investment, or indebtedness. The article presents various methods to calculate the rate of interest. The total interest, present value of annuity, amount of annuity is first calculated. By means of these relations, the article is able to make substitutions in the usual formulas, obtaining what may be termed indirect formulas, which give rise to series that converge more rapidly than the series obtained by expansion of the original formulas. The new formulas are used as the bases for approximations to the interest rate. The article also presents a table to show the formulas for the calculation of present value of annuity or installment payment problems.