Professor Elam

So who thought all this up anyway?  Glad you asked.

Luca Pacioli is credited with codifying accounting in 1494 with Summa De Arithmetica. Like most 'discoveries or inventions' most of the ideas had been around for some time, perhaps going back to Greek civilization. There is much evidence that Muslims used a similar system. It was said that while Alex Bell got credit for the telephone it was Edison that made the thing so that one could actually talk through it. And so it goes.

I suggest you read this one to understand that it was the need for more accounting that grew out of the Reniassance and increased mercantilism (boday known as going shopping ). That traced back to Marco Polo (the Conde Nast Traveler of his day) and the Silk Route to China.

Oh by the way, if computers and the internet are all going to advance civilization, how is it that we have yet another financial disaster on our hands when everyone at Lehman, Bear, FNM, FRE had both a computer and internet access?  Just wondering….not to mention of course the FED…