11 FEBRUARY 1928, Page 30

Financial Notes

INVESTMENTS EASIER.

TILE Stock Markets, and more especially investment descrip- tions, have, during the past week, remained under the influence of the upward tendency in money rates, while a further knock was given to the market last week by the Chancellor of the Exchequer's preliminary announcement as to the unlikelihood of any reduction in the Income Tax in the next Budget. Perhaps it was as well that Mr. Winston Churchill should have dashed any premature hopes at this juncture, and I air glad to note that he accompanied his observations with regard to the Income Tax by a pointed reference to the height of local taxation and by stressing the necessity for straining at all points the national credit so that profitable conversion schemes may be carried through later on. Never- theless, it was open to the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he took office four years ago to have framed his policy along lines which might have secured, ere this, far more favourable Debt Conversions than those which have been carried through. In other words, Mr. Churchill has not only failed to economize, but he has actually increased the National Expenditure, and the weak point even of his latest speech is the failure to recognize the root cause of our troubles, namely, extravagance in the National Expenditure.

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