Monetary and Fiscal Thought and Policy in Canada, 1919-1939 / / Irving Brecher.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Toronto Press eBook-Package Archive 1933-1999
• VerfasserIn: Brecher, Irving,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2016]; ©1957
• Year of Publication: 2016
• Language: English
• Series: Heritage
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (350 p.)

In this careful and thorough study of a Canadian field which has been relatively untouched in recent years, Dr. Brecher records and comments on the development of monetary and fiscal thinking in Canada in the inter-war period, and its impact on public policy in the federal sphere. Examining Canadian opinion about economic theory during this time, the author draws on four fields of thought: that of government and other public officials; of businessmen, such as bankers, and their views on what should be done about the depression; of the ";radical group";, such as those prominent in the formation of the CCF and Social Credit parties; and of economists, prominent in the universities.Dr. Brecher points out in his preface that his inquiry is rooted in the conviction that the problems associated with cyclical fluctuations remain sufficiently complex to make an understanding of the developments of the twenties and thirties an indispensable condition for effective stabilization policy. He finds the twenties distinguished only in the superficial and imperfect diagnosis of and remedial suggestions for unemployment, made chiefly by a relatively small handful of thinkers associated with the Progressive and United Farmers movements, then emerging in the West. It was the thirties which, under the impact of the depression, witnessed the first real stirrings of careful economic analysis in cyclical terms, and of statistical techniques for measuring the value of annual productive activity and income receipts in the Dominion.The author has attempted to appraise the evolution of the Canadian policy of monetary and fiscal stabilization within the thought environment in which it was conceived and implemented, and on the basis of the standards set by modern income-employment theory.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- PREFACE -- CONTENTS -- TABLES -- CHAPTER I. THE PROBLEM IN ITS GENERAL SETTING -- PART I: THE DECADE OF THE TWENTIES -- CHAPTER II. EAST AND WEST IN CANADIAN ECONOMIC THOUGHT -- CHAPTER III. THE IMPACT OF MONETARY THOUGHT ON POLICY -- CHAPTER IV. THOUGHT AND POLICY IN FISCAL DEVELOPMENT -- PART II. THE BACKGROUND OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION -- CHAPTER V. CANADA IN THE WORLD ECONOMY -- CHAPTER VI. CHANGING CANADIAN VIEWS ON "STABILITY" PROBLEMS -- PART III. THE MONETARY REVOLUTION OF THE THIRTIES -- CHAPTER VII. THE INFLATION CONTROVERSY -- CHAPTER VIII. THE END OF THE CENTRAL BANK CONTROVERSY -- CHAPTER IX. CANADIAN MONETARY POLICY IN DEPRESSION AND RECOVERY -- PART IV. FISCAL CHANGE IN THE THIRTIES -- CHAPTER X. FISCAL THINKING IN CANADA - OLD AND NEW -- CHAPTER XI. CANADIAN FISCAL POLICY IN DEPRESSION AND RECOVERY -- CHAPTER XII. THOUGHT AND POLICY IN RETROSPECT -- NOTES -- INDEX