MODERN ECONOMICS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21861, 25 July 1934, Page 8

MODERN ECONOMICS

PROBLEMS OF COMPETITION NEW LINES OF THOUGHT Some new ideas in economics that hare developed in recent years were reviewed yesterday by Mr. H. D. Dickinson, lecturer in economics at Leeds University, who is on exchange to Auckland University College for a year, at a meeting of the Auckland chapter of the New Zealand Institute of Certified Secretaries yesterday. The address followed a luncheon at Milne and Choyce's Reception Hall. Mr. Dickinson said there had been a very great stiffening of the economic structure in recent years. It was held that competition was justified because it produced the best distribution of re« sources, but the best results were not likely to be obtained from gas and electricity service's by unrestricted competition. This also applied to transport, and, although the road and rail problem was a thorny one, few economists would agree that the best solution vras to allow the organisations concerned to fight out their differences.

"There is probably no department of economics in which there has been as much rapid development of thought aS that of money," Mr. Dickinson said. Emphasis had been moved from coin and note issues and exchange to bank credits and debits. The latest line of thought, introduced by Austrian economists, might be described as a new; analysis of. the circulation of money,' aiming at a certain balance in the structure of business. It was, not merely the quantity of credit, but the way it was used that was important, according to the latest ideas. The value of economic planning was also mentioned by Mr. .Dickinson. He said such a-more, should be applied to the whole industry of a country, and mentioned that, planning, in spite -of vigorous opposition, was rapidly gaining support.