The Treatment of 'Foot-Note' Liabilities.

This article informs that in financial reporting center primarily around failure to disclose the aggregate effects of both price-level changes and "footnote" liabilities. Accounting literature has treated problems arising from price-level changes extensively in recent years, but has neglected those arising from the incomplete recognition of liabilities. It is with the idea of redressing this disproportionate emphasis that the following comments pertaining to "footnote" liabilities are offered. In a sense, the full disclosure of liabilities is more definitely the accountant's responsibility than is the adjustment for price-level changes. It may be that price stabilization policies, clearly beyond the scope of accounting, are the only satisfactory solution to the problem of price-level changes. It may also be that some readers of financial statements prefer money, as opposed to deflated or real, values. For immaterial items, the consensus appears to be that application of the full disclosure and uniform treatment requirements is discretionary.