AbstractsEconomics

The course of world economic activity has not been steady; indeed, it has been subject to continual fluctuations, some of which have been·very sweeping. History records many periods of great economic expansion and recession. Such long trends, however, have been brought about, for the most part, by structural changes in economic conditions as, for example, by the discovery of new lands and consequent waves of migration, and, as such, they have been beyond the control of human influence. For that reason they are not the subject of consideration here; we are concerned, rather, with the familiar short-term fluctuations that are superimposed on these broad swings. [...]