The Fall in Stocks All over Europe, and beyond Europe
in the United States, the stock markets languish and securities are marked down. Mainly the cause is war-uncertainty. Why should anyone, who has liquid cash, lock it up in investments which the kindling of a conflagration would at once depreciate far below what he gave for them ? Better wait a month or two and see. Such is the reasoning of the ordinary individual ; and if one combines the reasonings of a mass of individuals, one may get the result that one sees. Does this, however, entirely account for the specially sensational scramble to sell securities in Berlin ? Probably not, though there are some factors that may aggravate the same tendency there, particu- larly the circumstance that considerable holdings of German industrial shares have been owned by foreigners, who at such a time would be particularly eager to clear out. On the whole, however, it seems likely that the German slump has been deepened by local circumstances only indirectly connected with the war peril. One is the heavy new addition to the German Corporation Tax. Another is the extreme shortage of liquid capital in the hands of industrialists. Big concerns seem to be selling shares to raise the wind. How long Nazi f nance can persist in such paths (in the event of peace) without a breakdown is a question not easy to answer.
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