Author: Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2015-06-15

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 9781330082348

Excerpt from The Currency Problem and the Present Financial Situation: A Series of Addresses Delivered at Columbia University, 1907-1908 The Crisis of 1907 in the Light of History The occasion of the addresses collected in this volume was a desire to contribute to the understanding of the crisis of 1907, and to lay down some principles which might be of service in the reconstruction of our currency system. The first question, however, that will obviously present itself, is as to whether the crisis of 1907 was primarily a financial or an industrial crisis; and it may be well, before taking up the specific problems raised by the addresses, to consider this question a little more closely. From one point of view, indeed, every economic crisis is a financial crisis. For since values are expressed in terms of money, and since the modern business superstructure is erected on the basis of credit, every economic revulsion expresses itself through the medium of a change in prices; and since the bank is the center of credit operations, every crisis inevitably involves a revolution in the conditions of credit. From this point of view, all crises may be declared to be financial crises. From another standpoint, however, a distinction may be drawn between financial crises proper and commercial or industrial crises in the larger sense. There may be a financial panic or crisis due primarily to temporary and sudden oscillations in the condition of the money market or in the price of securities. Such oscillations, sharp and sudden though they be, may have but little relation, whether of effect or of cause, to the general commercial and industrial interests. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.