Present Boom, Future Slump ?
Sir William Beveridge told the Economics Section . . of the Association on llionday that, though for various reasons we have a large number of unemployed and are - even now paying out between £600,000 and £700,000 a week from the Unemployment Fund, we have today in Great Britain practically no cyclical unemployment arising out of trade depression. On the contrary, we Stand on the .crest of a wave. But unless all piior experience is. falsified, we shall in due course fall into a trough again,. at a date which can only be guessed, but which, on the analogies, might be placed as early as 1938. What are we doing about it ? We are accumu- lating week by week a 're-serve in the UnemployMent Fund which now exceeds £30,000,000. That is some- thing, but not everything. Now is the time; while conditions are relatively easY, for thinking out a more comprehensive policy, which can be systematically and unhurriedly applied, when they .grow more difficult again. The . purpose must. be 'to create employment, not ,subsidise. unemployment,
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