U.S. Faces Two Years of Crisis, Business School Economists Say

The next two years may be "the most critical in the history of our country," 15 members of the Business School faculty state in an article appearing in the January issue of the Harvard Business Review. The group warns the American people against "relaxing their guard" because of the lull in the Korean fighting.

The best time for a Russian military strike would be 1952, the economists claim, because Western military preparations will not be adequate then to give the West military superiority. Moreover, "the confusion and hurly-burly of an election year" will deflect the interest of politicians from the job of defense.

Even if war does not come in this period, the professors add, the defense effort must still face some "very stubborn facts": the strain of rearmament on the economy of European nations, a shortage of critical materials in the U.S., and an "increasingly serious lag" in the production of defense weapons.

The group includes Malcolm P. McNair '16, Lincoln Filene Professor of Retailing, and John V. Lintner, Jr., associate professor of Business Administration.