The work of the Stock Exchange

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1831284952

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-225876

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Meeker, James Edward http://d-nb.info/gnd/126597340

Title:: The work of the Stock Exchange

Edition:: Revised edition

Place of publication:: New York

Publisher:: The Ronald Press Company

Year of publication:: [1930]

Scope:: XVI, 720 Seiten; Illustrationen, Diagramme

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter I. The evolution of securities

Collection:: Economics Books

THE WORK OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE tures. Constant attempts have been made to attain this ideal through budget systems and the like, and on certain rare occa- sions an approximate equilibrium between income and expense has temporarily been achieved. But, at least in the hazardous world of today, only a relative success in exactly balancing the government's books without a remaining surplus or debt seems practically possible; for both the expenses and the revenues of modern government are necessarily variables. Wars in par- ticular may quite unexpectedly make necessary vast increases in governmental expenditure, while the actual sums to be real- ized through the various kinds of taxation in turn depend upon the veering course of economic development, business prosperity, and other uncertain factors. In the absence, then, of an ability consistently to pay the current expenses of gov- ernment out of its current taxation revenue, methods have naturally had to be devised for financing the sudden financial needs of government in excess of the amount of its current income. Financing with the Printing Press.—QOne age-old fallacy looking to this end—the printing of large quantities of irre- Jeemable paper money—deserves passing comment here. To those innocently or wilfully ignorant of the intricate and deli- cate mechanism of modern currency, such an inflation of the money system may seem a simple and obvious panacea. Their line of reasoning runs.somewhat as follows: “The govern- ment needs money—money is produced by the printing press— therefore we should print what we need.” While this is not the place to inquire into the complexities of modern currency sufficiently to explode this superficial but tremendously dan- gerous economic fallacy, it is enough to state that every gov- ernment which has followed this primrose path of financing has in the end discovered it to be not only a highly dangerous but a completely futile expedient. Never in history was the disruptive effect of fiat money on the whole economic structure of civilization illustrated on so extensive a scale, with such

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