Reviews the book "Spicer & Pegler's Practical Auditing," by Walter W. Bigg.

Reviews the book "Cutting Your Unemployment Taxes," by Richard J. Potter.

Reviews the book "Price Practices and Price Policies," by Jules Backman.

Reviews the book "Cost Accounting," 4th ed., by John J.W. Neuner.

Accounting uses a universally known measuring stick, the dollar. Yet the common dollar is not an invariant measuring unit. Dollars in 1950 do not measure the same purchasing power as did 1940 dollars. Accounting, in other words, assumes a stable measuring unit. In periods of major price movements this assumption is clearly invalid for certain purposes, as has been pointed out by various writers in recent years. Undoubtedly interpretive accounting faces a challenge at this point. Management and accountants should remember that their primary responsibility is still to the investors, those who seem to be the forgotten men. The absentee investor, unlike the owner-operator, has no opportunity to combine reported information with first hand knowledge of the conditions and activities of the business. Management and accountants have the responsibility to provide information to aid the stockholder in wise decisions. The stockholder requires information to aid him in decisions to hold, sell or buy more stock, in other words, information concerning the comparative merits of his stock and alternative investment opportunities.

Reviews the book "Advanced Accounting," by Arthur W. Holmes and Robert A. Meier.

All business firms have felt the impact of rising prices in one way or another. In many cases their financial statements have yielded peculiar results. On the balance sheet, the historical cost basis of valuation of plant and equipment, and the "lower of cost or market" method for the valuation of inventories have tended to undervalue assets grossly. Credit ratings, current ratios, and insurance coverage often cannot be determined adequately from these figures. On the income statement, reported earnings have often soared to unprecedented heights, due mainly to the matching of out of date inventory and depredation figures against current, higher selling prices. Accompanying this exaggeration of profits are the problems of higher replacement costs of inventories and plant, of sharing these illusory profits among the government taxing agencies, laborers, and stockholders, of the determination of future selling prices, etc. The accounting records become much less useful as aids in solving these perplexing problems, in as much as they have not been adapted to the changing price level.

This article focuses on the problem of fixed charges in cost accounting. Fixed costs may be defined as those costs which remain practically unchanged in total amount when physical volume of output is varied. Such costs are not controllable by management, for their total amount is independent of circumstances which can be altered by executive decision. Most of these costs are fixed only within a certain range of output and become variable when greater ranges occur. To control costs, management needs information concerning controllable costs: which costs are controllable, what these costs should have been and what they actually were, as well as why the variances occurred. To determine the adequacy of selling prices, management needs to know total costs and product variable costs. Total costs will provide information as to the over-all adequacy of selling pikes. Variable product costs will provide information as to the adequacy of selling prices of individual products and, provide a guide for minimum selling prices. Thus management is concerned with both fixed and variable costs.

A recent article appeared in the "Wall Street Journal," captioned, "Businessmen, Professors Disagree on Subjects Best for Commerce Career, But No One Favors 'Vocational' College." The occasion for this article was the publication of a study made by the Society for the Advancement of Management concerning the courses businessmen and college professors considered essential for a well rounded education for business. It was not surprising that businessmen and professors were unable to agree in all cases, as educators themselves find numerous areas of disagreement concerning curricula content. The results of this study are interesting because of the emphasis given to the study of accounting as a preparation for business. Of more significance, however, was the recognition given to the so-called cultural courses of study. The demands placed upon accountants are such that a thorough technical training plus a broad general background are essential for success in this area of work. This is particularly true in the field of public accounting.

Reviews the book "Consolidated Statements," by George Hillis Newlove.