TABLE OF CONTENTS President Lyndon B. Johnson is famous for his penetrating remarks. A story making the rounds in Washington is that an assistant tried to impress upon the US President the need to attend a lecture by a well-known economist, who was presenting his latest theory on federal budgets, employment, and growth. Johnson refused. 'He is also a Democratic Party fund raiser,' insisted the assistant. 'Yes,' said Johnson, 'but the theories of economists are like somebody who is pissing in his pants. To him, but only to him, it's hot stuff.'
And there is another Washington story about economics and economists. This concerns another US president: Harry Truman. President Truman had his way of reacting to the rather ambiguous advice he got from economists. 'I am looking for a one-armed economist,' he is rumoured to have said in a cabinet meeting at the White House. When asked why, he answered: 'So that when he gives me an opinion, he does not immediately add " on the other hand ".' Between them, these two presidential stories do indeed provide a take on what management accounting seeks to achieve:
To provide shareable hot stuff on the facts and figures for decision-makers, rather than individually...
