Accounting and auditing are frequently cited as culprits in the current economic crisis. Traditional practices (including academic rationales) are coming under increased scrutiny. This paper proposes a way of beginning to reinvigorate the subject by returning to the classics. Accounting, as a...

This is a selection from Professor Abraham Briloff (deceased in 2014) from his book, More Debits than Credits: The Burnt Investors Guide to Financial Statements, Harper and Rowe, New York, 1976. Abraham Jacob Briloff was born on July 19, 1917, in Manhattan. His parents, Benjamin and Anna, were...

The politics of getting published, promoted, and tenured is serious stuff. The International Journal of Economics and Accounting will help scholars in this struggle. It is important however not to waste space here with platitudes and cliches. We will use the opportunity to deliver a few...

The accounting classics series in the International Journal of Economics and Accounting is an important strand in this journal's policy of bringing a critical understanding of auditing and financial reporting. This journal is only interested in the technocratic regression and market studies...

Since the US voters elected Barack Obama in 2008 – the first African American President of the United States of America – we witness continual attacks on this first black president. The attacks by the Tea Party have been widely broadcast by those parts of the US media most sympathetic to...

The collapse of ABC Learning (ABC) is replete with lessons for accountants, auditors, executives and regulators. From its early beginnings, ABC's intervention into child care provision, gave plenty of red flags for anyone paying attention. Unfortunately, the euphoria, championed by Australian's...

The state of the world economy is something of a moving feast. Each week, news from the USA, Europe and now China registers a new development, with a growing appreciation of the interconnectedness of the world economy. 'Understandings' are often confounded with 'happy talk' (what used to be...

A great deal of disinformation has been proffered concerning the prospects for the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The elephant in the room is the USA. The USA is the last but most important hold-out. Without a US adoption of IFRS, IFRS will be relegated to a...

Notwithstanding, definitive evidence from archaeology and anthropology (that has also found a modest foothold in the accounting history literature) that accounting and accountants in Africa, were at the beginning of human (Western) civilisation as we know it, there remains strong Eurocentric and...