I. Introduction, 503. — II. Factors behind the recent mergers, 504. — III. Government regulation of bank mergers, 519. — IV. Effects of mergers upon banking markets, 524. — V. Conclusions, 531

This article presents remarks before annual meeting of American Accounting Association, presented on September 1, 1954. The term "academic" in the college and university world, means teaching and research. Both are essential in a well-rounded educational program, and the two usually go hand in hand. This Association has taken a leading place in both areas. Its original purpose was the improvement of instruction by bringing together those concerned for discussion of topics relating thereto. Whatever may be the economic success and public recognition of a profession, whatever may be the growth of its membership, however rigid may be its regulations for admission and practice, its true service and its accomplishment will depend on the quality of preparation of its members. This is where our collegiate departments of accountancy and related business subjects must recognize the depth of their responsibility. So the demands as well as the opportunities for an organization of this kind and its individual members continue without limit

The article focuses on management contracts, expense sharing agreements and tax planning. In recent years, many studies have discussed tax planning and tax effects. Comprehensive comparisons have been published listing tax factors that influence the choice of type of organization corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship. One tax review lists as tax factors in the choice the tax burden, tax concern, capital gains and losses, exempt interest, social security taxes and community property. It gives a detailed analysis on tax problems of personal holding companies, improper accumulations and other transactions. One phase of the subject which has not been discussed frequently and which is the subject of this study is the contract entered into to regulate management compensation or to allocate administrative expenses between one or more operating businesses or companies. These contracts are generally known as expense sharing agreements. They may be entered into between parent corporations and its subsidiaries, or they may be used in a situation where the managing corporation has a controlling interest in the managed corporation

This article focuses on the policies and procedures of American Accounting Association Committees. To a considerable extent, these regulations represent the rules under which the present and previous Executive Committees have operated. They are not intended to bind future Executive Committees, since each succeeding Executive Committee has the right to determine the rules under which it, the officers, and Association committees will operate, within the by-laws. The President may be given the authority to create new education task committees with the advice of the Joint Committee on Education. It is recommended that the chairmen of the underlying task committees be ex-officio members of the Joint Committee on Education. With the exception of the Director of Research, a person should be limited to membership on one committee, in addition to membership on the Joint Committee on Education, the Membership Committee, the Nominations Committee, and the Executive Committee. Only members of the American Accounting Association should be appointed, committees may have non-member consultants, however, if the Executive Committee approves the idea and the consultant

STATISTICS as a scientific method goes back to the seventeenth century when William Petty and others computed mortality ratios on the basis of church records of births and deaths. This arithmetic as it was then called became a method for discovering statistical regularities in human affairs. It was used for such practical purposes as the computation of life annuity tables. It was also used by theologians, as Peter Suessmilch, to prove the wisdom of God by demonstrating the astonishing regularities in the creation. Statistics as a scientific method and academic discipline has spread in these two hundred or two hundred and fifty years of history from application to political and social affairs to all fields of human endeavor. There is today no field of inquiry or art in which statistics as a method does not find some use or some occasional misuse. Every use of statistics assumes that certain magnitudes or relationships, found to exist at the time when the counting took place, will continue to exist. Therefore, the use of statistics is based on the assumption of some continuing regularity in human affairs. But how can we assume that any magnitudes or relationships ascertained for the past have any validity for the present or the future in a world in which explosive changes appear to drown out what regularity there may be? Rapid change and political turmoil appear to make questionable any conclusions for the future drawn from measurements of the past. In this paper I will deal with this problem in the field of economic statistics and, more specifically, in the field of business cycle statistics. Here is a question of great importance for modern life. Next to problems of individual freedom and responsibility and foreign policy there is hardly a question more important than that of maintaining the continued growth and stability of the economy with a minimum of government regulation. The importance of these objectives was officially recognized in the Employment Act of I946. The determination of policies designed to promote economic growth and stability depends largely on our ability to appraise the economic outlook. The economic outlook cannot be appraised simply by looking at the most recent statistics alone. Recent statistics show, for instance, that business activity has been contracting, and that the contraction has slowed down in April or May of this year (I954). These facts themselves do not tell us whether, henceforth, economic activity is likely to expand again or to continue to move sidewise or whether the contraction has only slowed down temporarily and is likely to continue later this year or next. The question is: How can we derive from statistics of the past conclusions for the future? Inventory oscillations of a few months' periodicity move around a cyclical curve of several years' periodicity which in turn moves along a secular trend line. For an effective anti-cyclical policy we need to know where we stand in the cycle and on the trend. We look to business cycle analysis and business cycle statistics for an appraisal of probabilities in economic development this is the minimum we need to have as guidance for a policy of economic stabilization