LESSONS IN ECONOMICS

Among the sciences which most vitally affect the life of man, perhaps none has been so tantalizing a puzzle to the average citizen as economics. In political matters, John Doe possesses at the least a few principles, a handful of facts, and a smattering of prejudices and opinions to color them. He will perhaps be an "amateur expert" in electricity or mechanics. But in regard to economics he has little information, and that little is highly personal.

The very magnitude of the subject has obscured it. Its ramifications, social, political and economic are such that the taxpayer has been willing to resign the subject to the experts and foot the bill more or less graciously. Such has been the custom until recently. But it is one of the items on the credit side of the depression that it has produced a radical change in this attitude. Whether he wants to or not, the citizen today must be interested in economic questions.

The experts in whom confidence was placed have not been infallible after all, and the economic situation rapidly becomes of the acutest personal interest. In the great days of prosperity it was only the most immediate economic problems which affected the ordinary citizen, and the relationship between world financial tangles and the individual pocketbook was only vaguely felt. Today, analysis and glosses of the world's monetary problems are broadcast by press and radio. Most of them pass over the ordinary head, but general impressions nevertheless remain. Smith and Jones are at least unforgettably aware of the magnitude of the situation, and of the importance of economic considerations in world affairs.