Mr. Stanley Hope, president of the American National Association of Manufacturers, has told the General Confederation of Italian Industry that 'chronic inflation has steadily undermined the economy in most free nations since the war ended." But Mr. Hope's only alternative to inflation was a "spartan monetary and fiscal" policy by governments in order "to maintain a stable currency." Any attempt to impose "Spartan" monetary policies" must lead to an even worse undermining of economies, the rapid growth of unemployment and revolutionary conditions favouring the Communists.
The use of the adjective "spartan" to describe a monetary policy suggests that Mr. Hope does not understand that the only justification for such a policy would be a "spartan" economy. But the present economy, particularly the American economy, is the very reverse of spartan. What is urgently required is a financial policy reflecting economic truth.
THE NEW TIMES — October 30th, 1959