WISE INVESTMENT
Is Mr. Chamberlain trying to help investors .to forget ? His forecast, which nobody can suppose is derived from" any easy optimism, of continued trade expansion and-no return of the 1931 slump, is certainly reassuring. One way of avoiding slumps is, of course, to go without booms, and I suspect that Mr. Chamberlain can be counted among those -advocates of a " balanced economy " who are prepared to deal drastically with"the kind of speculative excesses which " draw repenting
after." While investors will therefore take fresh heart from the authorities' confidence in the staying-power of industrial recovery, I think the speculator, both in securities and commodi- ties, will do well, in his own interest, to watch his step. When Mr. Chamberlain says he believes he can avoid a slump, he also implies that he will not let speculators rush him into an unruly boom.
So long as the Spanish goblin is over the sun stock market activity will not become effervescent, but the atmosphere in Throgmorton Street is gradually improving. In some sections investors may again be observed quietly on the feed on their favourite securities. Gilt-edged, leading tobacco and iron and steel are all attracting investment demand, for buyers are impressed, I think quite justifiably, with as fine an array of industrial statistics as we have had for a long time. Unem- ployment : back to 1929 level ; rail traffics : 41 per cent. up ; electricity output : plus 13.4 per cent. ; provincial bank clearings : plus 18 per cent. ; steel output : up by to per cent. Specu- lators are still wary; but some of the stronger and bolder, having
licked their wounds, are now on the prowl and sniffing the air.
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