ESSAYS IN PERSUASION

PART

318

ness is often a lottery, that great inequalities ofwealth come about; and these same factors arealso the cause of the Unemployment of Labour,or the disappointment of reasonable businessexpectations, and of the impairment of efficiencyand production. Yet the cure lies outside theoperations of individuals; it may even be to theinterest of individuals to aggravate the disease.I believe that fhe cure for these things is partlyto be sought in the deliberate control of thecurrency and of credit by a central institution,and partly in the collection and disseminationon a great scale of data relating to the businesssituation, including the full publicity, by law ifnecessary, of all business facts which it is usefulto know. These measures would involve Societyin exercising directive intelligence through someappropriate organ of action over many of theinner intricacies of private business, yet itwould leave private initiative and enterprise un-hindered. Even if these measures prove in-sufficient, nevertheless they will furnish us withbetter knowledge than we have now for takingthe next step.

My second example relates to Savings andInvestment. I believe that some co-ordinatedact of intelligent judgement is required as to thescale on which it is desirable that the communityas a whole should save, the scale on which thesesavings should go abroad in the form of foreigninvestments, and whether the present organisa-tion of the investment market distributes savingsalong the most nationally productive channels.