Half Hours with the W.E.A.

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 44, 13 May 1932, Page 9

Half Hours with the W.E.A.

Financial Policy in the | Crisis ' No. 2: How Money. Comes Into the | Question. . (To be broadcast by Mr. N. M. Rich- | mond, B.A., from 1YA, on Wednesday, May 18, at 7.30 p.m. ) N order to estimate the extent to | which our money and banking meth- | ods are at fault we must try as far as Wwe can to "set the hang of’ these | methods as they are at work to-day. Any text-book will tell you that the term "money" is used in various senses --it is a means of exchange, a unit for measuring the comparative values of things, a store of purchasing power giving the holder a claim on commodities, and so forth. Money, in each and all of these senses, can be a most imperfect instrument. "he most fundamental principle which has to be grasped about money is the "Quantity Theory." Crudely gpeaking, this theory asserts that the "price level’ (a term which needs @ little explanation) depends on two main factors-(1) the "quantity of money in circulation," and (2) the "velocity of circulation" (meaning-again crude--jy-the rapidity with which the money is changing hands). | Now the main test of an efficient money system is usually taken as being its success or otherwise in keeping the "price level’ -reasonably steadysince serious fluctuations in this level (whether upward or downward) have serious consequences. This may sound simple, but it is complicated by the fact that under the term "money" we must include not only the various forms of currency" (coin, notes, ete.), but also various forms of "credit" (eg., purchasing power issued by banks and operated on by cheques, ete.). It is still further complicated by the fact that, if the various money systems of various countries operated quite independently, a failure of any one country to keep its price level steady would tend to spoil the efforts of the other countries to do so. ' Both these complications have up to the present been to some extent met by the "Gold Standard." The meaning of this will be included in the following talk, which will also discuss the claims of a "managed" money system to be considered as a superior expedient. ’ (As mentioned last week, a fuller discussion of the whole economic crisis is available in the W.H.A. correspondence course, "Our Hconomic Discontents," particulars of which will be forwarded to anyone on receipt of a stamp by Mr. Richmond, c/o Old Grammar School, Auckland.) The Ways of Wild Birds No. 2: Birds as Travellers, (By Mr. R. A. Falla, M.A., on Thursday, May 19, at 7.80 p.m.) (a) The power of flight gives birds not only mobility within the lmita of

sae one country or district, but also from one country to another. (b) From earliest times in Europe bird migration has excited wonder and interest of man. (ec) Some well-known European mi-grants-the swallow and the cuckoo. * (d) Migratory birds ef New Zealand. (e) Theories of bird migration. New Series of Talks From 2YA. Development and Education. (By Professor W. H. Gould.) Thursday, May 26-The Nature of De‘velopment. Thursday, June 2-The First Seven Years. Thursday, June 9-The Second Seven Years. Thursday, June 16-The Third Seven Years. The Mind of Post-War Europe. (By Dr. Ian Henning.) Saturday, May 28-France. Saturday, June 4-Germany. Saturday, June 11-The Smaller Countries. Saturday, June 18-Russia. These to follow the series on "The Pleasures of Reading" and "The Harth and Man," now proceeding. | |