Journal Article Interest-Free Deficit Financing: A Reply Get access David McCord Wright David McCord Wright University of Virginia Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 58, Issue 4, August 1944, Pages 637–646, https://doi.org/10.2307/1884748 Published: 01 August 1944

Scope of the paper, 331. — I. Assumptions, 333. — Standard of living, 334. — Limit to the use of capital, 334. — The problem of steady development, 336. — The rate of accumulation, 337. — II. Possible objections, 339. New capital needs, 340. — III. Assuming many varieties of capital goods and of consumer's goods, 341. — "Diminishing Returns, " 342. — Standard of living, 344. — IV. Alleged "twilight zone" above zero per cent, 346. — Brakes upon borrowing, 347. — Effect upon demand for capital, 348. — The condition of indefinite waste, 349. — Perfectly elastic demand, 350. — V. Demand for "satisfactions in general, " 352. — "Hoped-for security, " 354. — VI. Summary of conclusions, 356.

ECONOMISTS, Napoleon is represented as saying, blockheads who make to stop the running sores of the body politic. They do not even know that a nation may have a sick soul. 1 writer quotes this opinion not because he agrees with it for he does not -nor to imply anything invidious regarding the authors under review in the present paper,2 nor yet, as will be seen later, to question the value of the financial plasters themselves, but because the statement nevertheless sums up an aspect of the case too often overlooked today and sharply brought into relief by the volumes under consideration. five books here assembled form one of the best collections of short essays on basic issues of the modern crisis so far published in this country. Dr. Lorwin's study is a sober and objective but intensely interesting non-technical summary of postwar planning throughout the allied world. essays collected by Professor Harris, together with Professor Slichter's independent study, give an excellent cross-section, from a rather more professional standpoint, of what the experts are thinking about such issues as inflation, deflation, foreign trade, public works, unemployment, the future of capitalism, etc., etc. Finally, Stuart Chase and Robert Nathan have set out to reach the public and in forceful and appealing language expound certain essentials of what might be called the new economics. Yet the over-all picture shows little agreement. The sponsors of most plans, Dr. Lorwin writes, in the throes of an economic dualism. They see an opening ahead for a new upsurge of industrial energy and of economic growth. But this outlook is darkened by the lingering memories of the aftermath of the First World War and the great depression. 3