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Now that the Budget is about to be opened, Mr. H. A. Silverman's cotnpact and dispassionate treatise on Taxation : its Incidence and Effects (Macmillan, 7s. 6d.) appears oppor-. tunely. He surveys the whole field with what some readers will regard as an almost inhuman detachment, setting out the general principles and the chief forms of taxation and discussing the possible effects of each tax. On the funda- mental question whether a very high income tax discourages enterprise and destroys the incentive to produce more, Mr. Silverman maintains a non-committal attitude. He thinks that " we do not know sufficient about business psychology to warrant any exact conclusions," but he seems to favour the view that investors, in face of heavy taxation, will prefer gilt-edged securities to industrial shares which are more speculative, and this view would certainly appear to be in accordance with present market tendencies. However, Mr. Silverman's purpose is to give the opposing theories, on this and other aspects of taxation whether national or local, and his book may be read with profit. In a useful appendix he gives details of our national expenditure since 1913.
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