PRIMING THE PUMP
Faced with the continued " recension” in the United States, President Roosevelt has decided to stimulate business by a very large dose of public expenditure, notes the Sunday Times. The classical metaphor whereby Americans have come to explain: and justify the process is that of the pump, down which water is poured in order to start its flow. But Mr Roosevelt’s priming will be on a gigantic scale. He will ask Congress to authorise for it an outlay equal to £600,000,000. For us the policy will have great interest as an experiment. Whether the pump metaphor is an accurate one, and how far. on balance, public spending stimulates business enterprise, has remained a very moot point. The previous Roosevelt experiment coincided with a revival of world trade elsewhere. The present one, launched In a period of distinct recession, may furnish a less ambiguous test.
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Otago Daily Times, Issue 23514, 31 May 1938, Page 12
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146PRIMING THE PUMP Otago Daily Times, Issue 23514, 31 May 1938, Page 12
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