MODERN ECONOMICS

Taranaki Daily News, 27 July 1934, Page 15

MODERN ECONOMICS

PROBLEMS OF COMPETITION. NEW LINES OF THOUGHT. Some new ideas in economics that have developed in recent years were reviewed bv 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 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. Itwas hethat competition was justified because it produced the best distribution of resources, but the best results were not likely to be obtained from gas and electricity services 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 was to allow the. organisations concerned to fight out their differences. • " . , “There is probably no department or 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 benk credits and debits. The latest, line of thought, introduced by Austrian economists, might be described as a new analysis of the circulation of nioney, 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 move should be applied to the whole industry of a country, and mentioned that planning, in spite of vigorous opposition, was rapidly gaming support.