ECONOMICS IN A NUTSHELL
By Lewis H. Haney '03. The Macmillan Company, New York, 1933.
"There is an acute and special need these days for straight thinking, especially in the field of Economics" (page xi). With this introduction in mind, the author proceeds to develop sixty lessons for the purpose of giving the average man an understanding of economic principles to enable him to judge many of the issues of the day. These little essays appeared first in the financial pages of the New York Evening Journal and in the North American Review. They are terse and pungent and arouse the interest of the reader.
As the name of the book indicates, Professor Haney has attempted to popularize Economics and to cover the field extensively rather than intensively. His succinct comments provide a useful beginning for an understanding of our many current economic dislocations and their treatment. His point of view is sound and broadminded. He feels that effective competitive tests must be applied in the selection of our economic leaders and that economic policies must give due recognition to economic laws.
Some of the most current and striking lessons cover the following topics: How Judge the General Welfare, Is Competition the Life of Trade, Why Is the Gold Standard Best, Why Is Inflation Never Controlled, Is Spending Better Than Saving, What Can Be Done by Sharing Jobs, What Is the Stock Market Problem, Can Trade Codes Supplant the Anti-Trust Laws, Why Do Business Stabilization Schemes Fail, What Is Socialism, and What Can We Learn from Economics?
The author decides that we can go either one of two ways at the present time. We can adopt a rigid collectivism or we can work back to a reasonable individualism. "To attain prosperity, it is necessary only to follow economic laws, whether individually or collectively" (page 199). He is somewhat skeptical of socialism. "Socialists have no monopoly of social reform; and they differ so widely among themselves as to make one doubt their grasp of fundamentals" (page 188). He admits that both individualism and socialism are extreme and one-sided, and that the best economic life can be attained only on the basis of a synthesis of the two philosophies—upon a true social point of view.
The book ends with a hope that "certainly our study should make us more humble in our opinions concerning complex economic questions, and less ready to form snap judgments." A list o£ forty questions for 1934 concludes the lessons and provides a beginning for the study of more economics.
