Public spending as a means to recovery August 6, 1936

摘要

The salient feature of the business situation in 1932 and early 1933 was the existence of unutilized capacity in practically every line of business. The national income had declined by over 50 percent, from $81 billion in 1929 to $39.5 billion in 1932. Although, with the increase in population, the real need for goods was greater than ever, the income out of which goods could be bought had shrunk and this gave rise to excess and unused productive capacity. The amount of unutilized capacity was incomparably greater and more widespread than anything that had ever existed previously. In 1921 the national income showed a decline of only 14 percent from 1920. In 1924 and 1927 it actually increased over the previous years. The maximum shrinkage in the national income in England in the recent depression was only 10 percent.