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There's a reason why accountants traditionally wore green eyeshades. In their "vision-intensive, detail-oriented" work, they were prone to "eyestrain" caused by scrupulous attention to columns and rows of numbers on a ledger. Now, of course, the strain is lessened by the softer glow of a computer screen. But the accountant's job is the same, nevertheless.
Historically, in fact, the practice of "accountancy" has not changed a lot in over 7,000 years, with the exception of the innovation of double entry bookkeeping by Luca Pacioli during the European Renaissance. Yet despite this doddering pedigree, accounting has ascended to the lofty realm of becoming "the language of business" that rationalizes all sorts of large-scale economic and political policy decisions in our society.
Take, for instance, the whole concept of so-called free trade agreements that have been driving American and
