Reviews the book "Principles of Accounting-- Introductory," by H.A. Finney and Herbert E. Miller.

Abstract The 1955 American Accounting Association Committee assigned to the task of revising the 1948 Statement of Corporate Accounting Standards undoubtedly spent much time and effort in making this revision, and the bulk of their achievement is to be highly commended. However, there is one conclusion that is most surprising and disappointing, and could only cause confusion in the minds of the readers of corporate accounting statements. This is the statement with regard to Part IV, Income Determination, as follows: Interest charges, income taxes, and true profit sharing distributions are not determinants of enterprise net income. The profession is now faced with this surprising and really confusing recommendation of the Committee that corporate net income should not take into consideration interest charges, income taxes or profitsharing distributions. However to argue that interest charges and income taxes are not costs of carrying on a business enterprise and determinants of net income, is to propose a concept of corporate net income which is illogical, contrary to common sense and contrary to universal business practice.

Reviews the book "Overhead Costing," by R. Lee Brummet.

Abstract Accounting is a technology that has developed very recently. With accounting, as with any technology in the process of development, there has been of necessity a good deal of uncertainty as to the best way to do things, and indeed what are the precise things that accounting can be expected to do. The practitioners of a developing technology must continually be on the lookout to devise new and better ways to handle situations already faced and to be ingenious enough to contrive acceptable solutions to new and trying sets of circumstances. The paper takes the position that accounting principles and procedures and standards have developed to the degree that now "an orderly array of interrelated ideas and interconnected reasons" must be attempted if accounting is to realize its full potentialities in serving the business and social ends of which it is capable and which is also its obligation. One characteristic of the U.S. accounting has been that it has been very slow in developing the philosophy that accounting must assert itself as being independent of management. The article gives attention to the conditions under which accounting has developed in the U.S. and how these conditions have contributed to the lack of assertiveness and have influenced considerably what are considered to be the functions of accounting.

Reviews the book "Tax Planning Under the New Regulation."

Reviews the book "Suggestions for Research in the Economics of Pension."

P. K. Newman, R. C. Read; Demand Theory without a Utility Index—A Comment, The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 25, Issue 3, 1 June 1958, Pages 197–199,