War News and Views

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 39, 13 April 1942, Page 3

War News and Views

WORLD ECONOMY RECONSTRUCTION AFTER VICTORY DRASTIC REVISION OF IDEAS Without losing sight of the fact that Avinning the Avar is the prime essential, increasing numbers of people have been taking thought upon the economic framework within AA'hich reconstruction must take place after victory. The -publication in "The Times" of two articles on world trade after the Avar is symptomatic .of a growing belief that, to quote tiie editorial comment Avhich accompanied the articles, ''There may be danger, as the precedent of the Fourteen Points shows, in reaching the end of the Avar Avithout any attempt to giA r e concrete shape to agreed principles." Tlie most important point is that these articles voice a Avidespread appreciation of the fatal consequences of seeking to return after the Avar to the old "trade dog-light," and a realisation that any editorial revival of Avorld trade avill require a new financia 1 technique and a drastic revision of all our old ideas of finance and economics. The groAvth is noted of a body of opinion AA'hich considers that mass and poAver production, A r ast!y improved transport facilities, and the establishment of great monopolistic combinations and amalgamations haA r e already destroyed the foundation of the old economic system. These dcA'elopmcnts have made our economic thinking as much out-of-date as tanks and aeroplanes have made our military thinking, training, and equipment. "In the only limits on production arc those set by the aAailable manpower and raw materials. It is fin-

a need by credits, which, although they are issued by banks in the form of loans, are really national credit, owing their value not to any Stocks of bullion held by the banks, but to the capacity of the country to provide the goods and services for which its currency constitutes a claim. Wc should, it is argued, avoid the nightmares of depression and unemployment, if we frankly adopted this principle in peace as well as in war, and made consequential changes in the financial system . . . We are not likely to solve our post-war problems unless we make up our minds to treat money as a bookkeeping technique, to facilitate production and the exchange of goods and services and not as something the supply of which sets a fixed upper limit to productive activities." rn conclusion, the article states: "It is important that an agreed programme should be formulated and published, Avith the least possible dejay—not only because as Mr Churchill 'has said that peace, when it does come, may come quite suddenly, but also because the world needs some ccncrcte assurance that victory of the Allies will not be followed by a return to pre-war stagnation. Industrial workers need, to be given confidence that the future has something better in store for them than short booms followed by long periods of depression and unemployment, and primary producers need some security against the catastrophic fluctuation of prices which caused so much havoc after the last war. No •difference 1 of theory should stand in, the way. Men who could never agree over questions of economic doctrine or social ideals should .vet find it comparatively easy lo agree upon the urgent practical steps needed to avoid economic collapse, the social and political effects of which might well imperil what remains of western civilisation."