INDUSTRIAL FLUCTUATIONS. By A. C. Pigou. (Macmillan. 25s.).-The business cycle
of booms and slumps is analysed with painstaking thoroughness in Professor Pigott's important new book-a companion to the second edition of his well-known Economics of Welfare. In dis- cussing the various causes of fluctuations he points out that a rigid wage policy-that is, the refusal of' trade unions to agree to temporary reductions of wages in bad times-has u more serious bearing on the matter " than popular arguments, focused on the circumstances of particular industries, siiggest." The suggested remedies arc many and various ; there is no panacea. Harvest variations might be minimized by the development of new types of wheat. Prices might be stabilized by the prompt use of the -discount weapon when trade is rising or falling. Wage rates might be more plastic and less rigid. Short time might be worked in preference to the dismissal of wage-earners-though this remedy has probably been used to excess in Lancashire of late. Unemployment insurance, if the benefit paid is less than the normal wage, mitigates the evil of a slump. Professor Pigou is fair-minded in argument and his collection of facts and figures is impressive.
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