GENERAL business, after a nearly horizontal drift from June to July, resumed its downward course during the third quarter (Chart I, p. I65). Money rates, which had by June already canceled most of the violent advance incident to the I93I gold panic, declined in each month of the quarter. Speculation, following a very small drop during June, rose sharply in July and August and was only moderately reduced in September. VOLUME OF BUSINESS Adjusted data for bank debits in selected cities outside New York, our measure of the aggregate dollar volume of business, reached a new low level at the end of the quarter. The decline for July was negligible, but both August and September brought moderately large reductions. The check tax may have caused part of the third quarter drop in debits, but this effect is not measurable.