Four Professors Disagree on Way To End Current Economic Slump

"We need to do something more than we are doing now" about the current recession, four economics professors agreed yesterday. Speaking before the Graduate Economics Club, the professors differed on methods of combatting the slump.

Professor James Duesenberry recommended a short-run tax cut of $5 billion or more in conjunction with an increased government expenditure program.

Terming the current recession "partly a making of the Federal Reserve Board," Seymour E. Harris '20 called for a drastic reversal of present inadequate monetary policies and passage of a more effective unemployment compensation measure, which would "put the money where you need it."

John Meyer, associate professor of Economics, voiced general agreement with Professors Duesenberry and Harris, but pointed out the need for structural changes in certain sectors of the economy, especially those areas where the marginal efficiency of capital is low. "Otherwise," he observed, "maintaining economic growth is likely to be an expensive thing."

Professor Arthur Smithies, who said that monetary policy was "possibly in danger of being crushed by the Harris-Galbraith steamroller," nevertheless agreed with Professor Harris that a rapid introduction of long-run spending programs and more liberal unemployment measures were urgently needed.