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

Abstract The justification for the adoption of standard cost should include the point that a proper or objective cost, however defined, can exist independent of subjective or incurred cost, at least temporarily. Standard cost for control purposes usually takes into account, or at least rationalizes, all expected expenditures and charges related to the manufacturing process. If competent factory engineers and superintendents are given a free hand in designing a factory for a stated rate of output of a product, there will be one combination of production factors which will be the most economical combination. Any deviation from this combination will yield a higher unit cost of output. Presumably the word objective can be used to describe such a unit cost. The isolation of this non-essential element from manufacturing cost, as ordinarily arrived at, might not be a difficult matter under all circumstances. If production is fairly standardized, it is likely that the rate of production is increased by exactly duplicating previously acquired combinations of factors of production, assuming stable conditions, and that it is decreased by ignoring similar combinations of factors of production.

Abstract The substantial fall in interest rates which began in the early 1930s resulted in a widespread exercise by corporations of the option to call bonds before maturity, where such provision had been incorporated in the bond terms. Even though a call premium had to be paid, the resulting saving in interest cost often was sufficient to make bond refunding appear mandatory. Other reasons which might have tipped the scales in situations where the interest saving may not have been significant, were the substantial saving in taxes based on income in a high tax year if a relatively large amount of unamortized bond discount and expense, applicable to the refunded bond, was present, and secondly, the opportunity to issue refunding bonds which omitted restrictive covenants found in the old bonds. The true nature of unamortized bond discount or bond premium and the correct presentation of the bond liability can be inferred from the ordinary compound interest computations used to arrive at the present worth of bonds.

Abstract Reviews the book "The Evolution of the Budgetary Concept in the Federal Government," edited by Catheryn Seckler-Hudson.

Reviews the book "Principles of Accounting--Introductory," 4th ed., by H.A. Finney and Herbert E. Miller.

Abstract Reviews the book "Principles of Accounting," 2ed., by John R. Bangs and George R. Hanselman.