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Some Aspects of the Stable Money Question

Quarterly Journal of Economics 1929 43(4), 667
The wide interest in the problem of stable money, 667. — Assumptions of the stable money advocates open to doubt, 668. — LA real standard of value and social justice, 668. — Effect on (a) the creditor, 669, (b) the laborer, 670, and (c) the entrepreneur, 670. —Ease of attainment, 671. — II. Relation between a stable price level and business stability, 672. — Secular trend important in relation to business activity, 678. — Reasons for supporting a stable price level, 679. — III. The use of a price index as a criterion of currency control objectionable, 680. — An alternative method proposed, 681. — Advantage of the proposed plan, 683. — IV. Complexities surrounding stabilization plans, 691. — Reasons for insistence on change from the gold standard, 691. — Gold standard should not be abolished, 693. — Conclusion, 694.

Investment and Saving: A Genetic Analysis

Quarterly Journal of Economics 1929 43(4), 567
I. Introduction, 567. — II. The consumption use of savings, 569. — The commercial use, 573. — The production use, 575. — III. The yield schedules: scarcity-reducing investments, 578; — efficiency-increasing investments, 583. — Currency difficulties, 586. — IV. The combined schedule, 590. — Sale of rent bearers, 592. — Equalization of rates, 593. — "Productivity" 594. — V. The influence of interest on saving, 596. — Saving and other factors, 601. — VI. Conclusion, 603.

Money, Trade, and Prices--A Test of Causal Primacy

Quarterly Journal of Economics 1929 43(4), 648
Equation of exchange restated, 649. — Working's theory of the isolation of cyclical variations in money and prices, 649. — Mitchell's theory of the primacy of the pecuniary volume of trade, 650. — Cycles of P and M, 652. — And of T and V, 654. — Working's two basic propositions examined, 656. — Seasonals of T, M, and V, 657. — Seasonals of PT plus R and MV, 659. — Cycles of PT plus R and MV, 661. — Bearing of these comparisons on Mitchell's hypothesis, 663. — Conclusions, 664.

Recent Expansion of Bank Credit

The Review of Economics and Statistics 1929 11(1), 46
IN no other country in the world is it possible to keep so closely in touch with current monetary developments as it is in the United States. The reports of the condition of the reserve banks and of the member banks furnish a fertile field of research for the economic statistician. Although much has been done in the interpretation of the forces at work in the banking system, it is safe to say that much remains to be done, and important additions to banking theory will arise from further study of the interactions within our complex financial mechanism. The statements for the member banks which report weekly furnish promptly available data for a group of banks with assets including about three-fifths of the total assets of all member banks. Since all member banks in turn comprise about 6o per cent of all banks in respect to total assets, it will be seen that reporting-memberbank figures are a 3 5-40 per cent sample of similar items for all banks. The reporting member banks are not a random sample, but their reports furnish a trustworthy picture of changes in the credit situation, and, since they are available weekly, have an obvious advantage over the reports for all member banks and for all banks. Although their movements should occasionally be checked against those of more comprehensive aggregates, one may depend upon reportingmember-bank data to furnish a good view of current developments in the credit situation. The solid lines on Charts i and 2 show total loans and investments of all member banks and of reporting member banks respectively for the period I922 to date, and it is apparent that the fluctuations are simi ar. For a measure of the amount of credit expansion in recent years it is possible to look either to the asset or to the liability side of the balance sheets which furnish our current banking statistics. Since reserves are computed as a percentage of deposits, it might seem more logical to look to deposits as an index of the degree of inflation in bank credit. The choice of loans and investments rather than of deposits can be defended practically by saying that after all it makes little difference. The two upper curves on Chart i support this conclusion. Thus, in the period under discussion the movements of total deposits of all member banks have been essentially similar to those for total loans and investments. A more pronounced seasonal movement in the deposits curve makes the resemblance somewhat less apparent than it otherwise would be. Hence, one objection to the use of deposits as a measure of credit expansion is that their significant movements are partly obscured by their

VALUE AND PRICE IN ACCOUNTING.

The Accounting Review 1929 4(3), 147-154
Abstract Value has not always been one of the problems of accounting, if accounting may be conceived as including bookkeeping. Bookkeeping is the record side of business and has had a definitely organized existence as double entry since about the middle of the fourteenth century. From very early times there has also been auditing of a kind, but only comparatively recently has valuation been a problem of auditing, as of September 1929. For the most part, early auditing consisted of checking the accuracy of the records made, value was not a part of the record. Such simple conditions, however, could not continue in the face of the growth of modern business. The volume of transactions was itself a matter of great influence, for volume brought about the development of skilled bookkeepers whose technical execution needed little outside checking, and volume made over the auditor's task into one of selective tests. Out of this situation grew the balance sheet audit, an examination of only the assets and liabilities, such as could yield an approved statement of financial condition satisfactory for credit purposes, yet without the work incident to a complete audit in the old sense.

THE DIVIDED CODE.

The Accounting Review 1929 4(4), 218-220
Abstract There is an evident tendency nowadays to crystallize accounting standards and essentials of business and financial practice in the form of explicit legal statement. State corporation acts, for example, have been steadily becoming more exhaustive and technical with respect to such subjects as form of capitalization, issuance of shares, dividends, valuation of assets, sale of property, and so on. The following is an outline of points which may well be covered in the dividend code or which should, at any rate, be carefully considered by those charged with the duty of framing the dividend section or sections of the act. The source and measure of dividends is profit, current or accumulated, or,.in special cases, increase in value of assets not yet converted through sale or other disposition. Disbursements by corporations in excess of this measure are reductions in capital and should be labeled as such, and should be charged to stated capital or to a special contra account modifying stated capital. There should be no exception to this definition in the case of wasting enterprises such as mines.