The world only goes round by misunderstanding

The world only goes round by misunderstanding. Charles Baudelaire

It is generally accepted under the current Historical Cost paradigm that the economy is divided in only two parts: the monetary economy and the non-monetary or real economy. It is also generally accepted that there are only two basic economic items in the economy: monetary items and non-monetary items. Monetary items are money held and items with an underlying monetary nature. Non-monetary items are all items that are not monetary items.

No distinction is generally made between the valuation of variable real value non-monetary items, e.g. property, plant, equipment, inventory, etc valued at Historical Cost under the Historical Cost Accounting model and constant real value non-monetary items, e.g. Issued Share capital, retained Earnings, other items in Shareholders´ Equity and most items in the income statement (excluding items like salaries, wages, rentals, etc. valued in units of constant purchasing power) also valued at Historical Cost under the HCA model.

This is the result of the fact that the economy is based on the Historical Cost paradigm. Historical Cost is the traditional measurement basis in accounting. It is thus generally accepted for accountants to choose to implement the very destructive stable measuring unit assumption (based on a fallacy) and measure financial capital maintenance in nominal monetary units (another complete fallacy) as authorized by the IASB in the Framework, Par 104 (a) during low inflationary periods.

Kindest regards,

Nicolaas Smith

Copyright © 2010 Nicolaas J Smith