Reviews the book "Financial Information and the Securities Market," by R.J. Chambers.

Reviews the book "Accounting: An Analysis of Its Problems," vol. 1, by Maurice Moonitz and Louis H. Jordan.

Reviews the book "Wealth, Income, and Intangibles," by J.E. Sands.

Abstract The article focuses on the major developments concerned with the principles or standards of accounting. The author refers to the rapid developments in national accounting theory and systems and the rise in interest in managerial accounting. Additional developments are the marked increase in the price level, and the height to which income tax rates have risen. A further development is the attempt to reformulate accounting theory by the use of modern mathematical and logical means. At the present time there are four types of national accounts the best known are the national income and product accounts. The national income accounts prepare a consolidated statement of operations for all economic units in a given country. Second among the types of national accounts is the calculation and report of money-flows, or fund flows, in the economy as a whole. These accounts attempt to measure the purely financial movements in the economy. A third type is the input-output, or the inter-industry analysis In essence this analysis conceives of the economy as a giant grid with each productive unit occupying one cell. Each productive unit must obtain its materials and its supplies and services from some other unit, and must deliver its output somewhere. This type of analysis attempts to plot and calculate all the interrelationships.

Reviews the book "Accounting and the Law--Cases and Materials," by James L. Dohr, George C. Thompson and William C. Warren.

Reviews the book "Legal Accounting," by William H. Shannon.

Abstract Reviews the book "Consolidated Financial Statements: Principles and Procedures," by William Herbert Childs.

Abstract In the past, charges have been leveled at the annuity method of estimating depreciation, some so serious as to have completely removed it from both formal and practical consideration. These contentions will be discussed in this paper, and in this process will be elucidated what is believed to be a more general annuity method than that ordinarily used. The criticisms with which this paper will be concerned are: 1) imputed interest on the fixed output asset is included in the cost of production; 2) each year's stream of revenues is assumed to be the same; 3) an arbitrary rate is used; 4) difficulty of application is too great. The belief regarding imputed interest arises from the contention that not only is the cost of the asset written off, but also interest on the asset. Because a rate is applied to the asset to show its growth during an accounting period as it approaches one period closer to its stream of net revenues, the suspicion is immediately amused that this must be interest. In order that the validity of this contention can be examined, investigation must first be made as to what rate is pertinent to the annuity method.

Abstract In this article the authors comment on an article related to placement of taxes in income statement, which was published in an earlier issue of the journal "The Accounting Review," as of January 1946. There are several kinds of revenue deductions which are nonetheless broadly in the same pew when it comes to the over-all calculation of net corporate income. First of the three classes of deductions is cost, in the sense of goods and services definitely consumed in the process of production. Second is losses, in the sense of outlays of one sort or another which have lost all significance so far as future operations are concerned, even though not having made any recognizable contribution in the past operations and last is taxes, which is payments to governmental units as computed on various bases and representing services only in the vague general sense in which government makes a contribution to the carrying on of the particular business enterprise. All of these classes of deductions are in the same boat when it comes to the question of determining profits.

Abstract In connection with its continuing study of the concrete meaning of "business entity," the Committee on Concepts and Standards of the American Accounting Association has selected the area of consolidated financial statements as one of importance. The basic principles of consolidated financial statements include that firstly, in the absence of special circumstances, consolidated statements are useful representations of financial position and results of operations when a dominant central financial interest in two or more companies exists and is accompanied by administrative control of their activities and resources. Secondly, in so far as practicable, the consolidated data should reflect the underlying assumption that they represent the operations, resources, and equities of a single entity. The first principle is a statement of policy, of objective, defining broadly the entity or area of consolidation, the second principle sets forth a general guide to the procedures of consolidation.