Abstract

This article presents a discussion on the present state of accounting in the U.S., and comments on the state of dissatisfaction among accountants. The article also summarize some specific areas and modes of thought which can be fruitfully pursued in developing a new accounto-economic discipline. One can find controversies and tensions the world over between the traditional accountant and the economist. The term social or national accounting indicates the recognition that this area of economics is actually a kind of accounting. A further problem which is closely related to a universal science of accountancy is the international exchange of thoughts in the field of academic accounting and accounting research. The facts that systematic international cooperation among accounting professors is non-existent, one can evidently say that the scientific spirit of the academic accountant is still somewhat underdeveloped. Although social accounting in its beginning stage took some ideas from business accounting, it now seems that this creditor-debtor relationship is being reversed, so that business accounting will be in a position to borrow concepts and ideas from various areas of macro-accounting.