America and World Economy
The report entitled "The United States in the World Economy,- published by the United States Department of Commerce and re- printed in this country by the Stationery Office, is the result of prolonged research by the bureau of Foreign and Domestic Com- merce. Though its. conclusions are not official, it is a document which will carry great weight in America. It examines the economic defects which had disastrous consequences in America and throughout the world in the period between the wars, and draws certain "salutary lessons" from the experience, the first of which is the need for a more stable and ample flow of dollars in transactions with other countries. It emphasises that "continuity and regularity" are even more important than quantity, for in the absence of calculable con- ditions foreign traders will be forced again to take measures to pre- tect themselves. "It would be tragic indeed," it is pointed out, "if the United States, after a period of renewed full participation in the world economy, were to permit another abrupt fall in the supply of dollars to disturb the recreated international mechanism." The dollars must flow both ways. Investment abroad may serve for a short time, but will only postpone the day of reckoning. The flow of incoming dollars in payment for exports can only be maintained by a corresponding flow of outgoing dollars in payment for import-. and to insure that there must be a modification in the tariff sum- ture, though not necessarily an abrupt or violent change. It
insisted that the United States cannot have it both ways as shi endeavoured to do in the past—a large volume of dollar receiri
against a small volume of dollar payments. That, to economi,i, in Britain, seems self-evident, but it remains to be seen whether it will appear so to a future Congress. Here at least in this volurrt is massive evidence for study, and it may be hoped that it will receiN, the attention it deserves.
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