Literature and insights

Citation

Evans, S. (2009), "Literature and insights", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 22 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/aaaj.2009.05922aaa.001

Literature and insights

Article Type: Literature and insights From: Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Volume 22, Issue 1

I feel a sub-prime moment coming on. My bank account is already feeling the strain of a growing family just as new expenses are looming. This is happening just when I cannot escape news reports that major lenders in the US are being bailed out by the (avowedly free market, non-socialist) federal government. It makes me think of the old saying that if you default on $100,000 owed to the bank, then you are in trouble, whereas if you default on $100,000,000, it is the bank that is in strife.

Liquidity can be such a slippery thing and, in a roundabout way, it has something to do with Thomas Stearns Eliot (I do not think he was connected with Stearns Bank). Under the name “Old Possum” in the 1930s, T.S. Eliot wrote his whimsical Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, latterly famous for being the basis of the hit musical, Cats. One of his creations, Macavity, became a byword for a character who evades responsibility. For example, when Gordon Brown was UK Chancellor, he was “compared to Macavity, the mystery cat who always seemed to be absent when trouble was brewing” (Jones, 2007, online). The last verse of Eliot’s poem Macavity begins with the lines:

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  Macavity, Macavity, there’s no one like Macavity,There never was a Cat of such deceitfulness and suavity.He always has an alibi, and one or two to spare:At whatever time the deed took place – MACAVITY WASN’T THERE! (Eliot, 1962, p. 42).

Satirist John Clarke hit the mark with The Accounting Cat, allegedly written by T.S. (Tabby Serious) Eliot, in which the equivalent lines are rendered thus:

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  Liquidity, Liquidity, there’s nothing like Liquidity,In purely economic terms it constitutes validity,I wish I had a pound for every credit millionaire,Who completely failed to register, LIQUIDITY WASN’T THERE! (Clarke, 1994, p. 43).

Money is not everything. In his poem Song of Money, David Huerta tells us that it “does not produce happiness but rather produces a state so similar it is hard to tell the difference” (Huerta, 2008, online). The lack of money, however, may be altogether different. Of course, worrying about how I will be paying for the sub-prime fiasco through increased interest rates and higher prices is not actually helping. Maybe I should simply be grateful for what I have – happiness does not have administrators and liquidators yet. If that does not work, I could just borrow a whole lot more. Then, if it all goes belly up I could sit on the pavement with a beggar’s hat and a sign, “Give generously – $100 billion debt to support”.

This issue’s special piece for Literature and Insights is a thoughtful essay on how a professional body wishes to be seen by others. Laura F. Spira and Michael Page look at the updated emblem of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, and the kind of message it sends to its members. I cannot help wondering what the emblems and logos of the recently bailed out financial institutions will look like next time around, if there were more truth in advertising.

I look forward to receiving your submissions for inclusion in this section of the AAAJ.

Steve Evans

Flinders University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia