The concept of a dollar shortage

Abstract

The article is the first of two in which the author discusses the basic problems arising from the large-scale disequilibrium in the economic relations between the European countries and the United States, and reasserts the need - if a sound and equitable readjustment is to be attained - of a strict policy of economic planning, the discriminatory unification of Western Europe as an economic unit and the planned expansion of European trade with the rest of the world. The author thus takes up a position which is somewhat extreme, meeting with marked opposition not only in American circles and in Europe - which is now tending towards the liberalisation of her economy - but even in Great Britain itself. The complexity of the proposed system of controls and their incessant manipulation and adjustment to the changing requirements of the economic trend may well give rise to serious doubts, which the author is himself aware of, especially in some European countries which have experienced the serious results of administrative clumsiness and inefficiency.

JEL: F36, F10, F31