News that terminal leave bonds can be cashed by September 1 may raise an itch on the palm of the veteran, but something more like a furrow on the brow of the professorial economist. Two members of the Economics Department here saw the government move yesterday as another round in the inflation spiral.
"It's all up to the veteran and what he does with the money," declared John D. Black, Henry Lee Professor of Economics. "If all that purchasing power is thrust on the consumption market at once, it's bound to have a boosting effect upon prices."
Recent developments, Professor Black added, make any precipitous rise in public spending particularly dangerous now. Pointing to numerous wage increases, particularly in the basic industry of coal, Professor Black saw a spending increment made possible by terminal leave cash as an ominous inflation threat.
Vet Will Spend
That a veteran would cash in his bond only to pad his safe deposit account was regarded as highly doubtful by Richard M. Goodwin, assistant professor of Economics. He considered that where the payoff money came from was the determining factor in estimating a possible inflationary effect.
Comparisons cannot be made with civilian holdings of war bonds, Goodwin asserted, citing postwar surveys showed surprisingly reduced quantities still held.
Read more in News
Co-Chairman for 1947-1948 Album Resigns PositionRecommended Articles
-
Supplying the AnswersJust what is supply economics? According to the business press, it is the latest successor to Keynesian economics: if we
-
Citizens First?Talk of an increased educational allotment under the G.I. Bill at a meeting of the AVC Harvard Chapter Wednesday night
-
AVC Provides, Helps Fill Out Leave Pay Application BlanksAny veteran who ever served as an enlisted man may receive help in filing his terminal leave pay papers at
-
Three Savants See No Crash In Stocks DipThree University economists have refused to see either the end of the current inflationary period or the beginning of a
-
Free Thinker Favored for ChairBen S. Bernanke ’75 once joked that his main talent was “taking the SATs” according to a colleague, but it