Knowledge that Transforms

The problem dealt with in this article is whether we can indicate, with the help of measured economic concepts, the rate of savings--as a function of time--which maximizes utility over time. The author believes that his attempt has been unsuccessful, but hopes that the nature of the difficulties encountered may be of some help in future attempts to solve this problem. A problem regarding the most important decision to be taken for any development program.

In September I958, the Subcommittee on Stabilization of the Joint Committeeof the U.S. Congress distributed an Economic Policy Questionnaire among some I500 college and university economists. The replies on the 65 questionnaires which were returned have been tabulated and appear in a report which has recently become available. It is the purpose of this note to discuss some of the significant aspects of the questionnaire.

IN the continuing debate about the role of money, credit, and monetary policy in our society, one of the major issues centers around the specific incidence of "tight money" on individual business firms. On the one hand, leading proponents of monetary controls as a regulatory device have emphasized the general, impersonal nature of such controls. They have argued that the impact of monetary policy is determined by the reaction of individual borrowers to changed market conditions.

In the article, “Structural Aspects of Money Velocity,” by George Garvy appearing in the August 1959 issue the figures in the tables should be corrected to read as follows: In Table II (page 437) the figures for 1954 should be: Individuals, 34.7; Total, holder record, 77.4; Bank and mail float, 17.6; Total, bank record, 95.0. In Table III (page 439) the figures for the following years should be: 1939, 8.54; 1946, 8.70; 1953, 6.16; 1956, 5.61.

THE PROBLEM of selecting a portfolio can be divided into two components: (1) the analysis of individual securities and (2) the selection of a portfolio or group of securities based on the previous analysis. Up to now, the majority of writers have focused on the first part of the problem and have developed several, well-accepted methods of analysis.1 Little attention has been paid to the second phase of the problem. It is to this second part of the portfolio selection process that this paper is principally devoted.