Written more for readers with only a general knowledge of the cloudy field of economic terminology and theory than for the examination of critical colleagues, 'Professor Rogers' book is quite free from befuddling ramifications so characteristic of academic economic treatises. The language is simple, and the analysis of questions under consideration is comprehensible. Added to his simplicity of treatment, Professor Rogers has livened up the book with numerous quotations from public figures to illustrate popular attitudes towards the problems he is discussing.

To begin he points out what many economists have known for years, but in simpler language, that among the chief defects in our capitalist system which must be remedied if we are to escape abnormally long depression periods is the restriction of production to maintain price. It is of prime importance, he observes, that production be kept going in spite of decreasing returns. Otherwise the closing up of productive units is self-perpetuating, prolonging the depression period.

Besides this criticism of capitalism in its present state, Professor Rogers adds five other reasons for the existence of our nine-year business dive. The freezing of capital by banks which are afraid to invest in business enterprises is a contributing factor to the reluctance of industrialists in maintaining and increasing output. Related to both of these evils is the current mutual antagonism between business and the administration, which Professor Rogers cites as another guarantee of a long depression.

Much more interesting than these generally recognized weaknesses in American twentieth century economy are Rogers' chapters on the anti-inflationists, the perennial budget-balancers, and on the rapid growth of interstate commercial restrictions. Inflation, as exemplified by the devaluation of the dollar, he prescribes as a possible means of relieving a contracted credit situation. In a one-act play, he gives a cross section of public reasoning on the inflation question, which is dominated by Al Smith's "I am for gold dollars as against baloney dollars!" Possibly Professor Rogers' most valuable discussion is that which deals with the national budget. Here he expounds the theory that a budget deficit is necessary and quite normal during a depression. Increased government spending to maintain consumer purchasing power should be carried on in a time of business contraction. Don't worry about balancing the budget until better times come, he advises, and then make the repayments to investors in government bonds. Rogers points out that what is needed in a budget policy is a long-run rather than a short-run balance, and that after all "a year is a pretty arbitrary accounting period . . . In fact . . . it might be almost as rational to demand that the balance appear each month." The author concludes by warning that if no solution to these afflictions is forthcoming that capitalism is doomed. He presents his own "home remedies" for these evils necessarily brief and superficial, but which point out a possible means of escape from increasingly serious economic dislocations.