Abstract This article focuses on price-level adjustments. Since 1948 there has been a steady flow of articles on the implications of the price-level changes for accounting reports, by far the larger portion agreeing that these changes had undermined the reliability of the convention financial statements. Between World War I and World War II there had been a very substantial amount of writing with a quite similar import. Expressions of dissatisfaction with conventionally prepared financial statements are widest in periods of rising price levels. At times such as these the detractors of accounting statements bemoan the fact that these statements do not use figures which represent "economic realities," whether asset values, or costs of production, or net income. It is not enough to state an ideal, the approximation of economic income "in accounting terms." The statement that the committee did not attempt to define economic income contains a curious double implication. The purpose of income calculations in practical affairs is to give people an indication of the amount which they can consume without impoverishing themselves.
Reviews the books "The American Association of Public Accountants, Its First Twenty Years," compiled by Norman E. Webster and "English Accountancy, 1800-1954," by Nicholas A.H. Stacy.
Abstract The 1954 annual meeting of the American Accounting Association was the largest and one of the most successful in its history. It was held on September 1 and 2 in Urbana, Illinois, with the College of Commerce and Business Administration, University of Illinois, as host. At the business meeting and luncheon on Wednesday, Dean Paul M. Green made a welcoming address, and brief reports were given by the Editor regarding the "Accounting Review," by the Secretary-Treasurer regarding nuances and membership statistics, and by the Director of Research concerning the Association's activities in this regard. President discussed the Association's Price Level Research Study and told of publication plans. After the banquet on Wednesday evening, President Smith introduced the members of the Committee on Convention Arrangements, the Ladies' Program Committee, and the persons seated at the speakers' table. President Lloyd Morey of the University of Illinois gave a very interesting talk, in which he traced the growth and development of the American Accounting Association.