Everyone admires consistency in the beliefs and actions of others. It is a token of reliability, long upheld as an ideal by accountants. At the same time, many tolerate and excuse inconsistency — especially on their own part — generally in the face of “unusual” circumstances. That liberty is abused, however, if the occasional becomes habitual, endorsed as a matter of principle or enshrined in the dicta of the influential. Then, the confused and contradictory override the deliverance of common sense and reason. The upshot is chaos in thought and practice and gross interference with the orderly conduct of financial