What Should Be the Relative Spheres of Private Business and Government in Our Postwar American Economy?

• Published in: The American economic review Vol. 34; no. 1; pp. 288 - 304
• Main Authors: Bell, James Washington, Fetter, Frank A., Willcox, Walter F., Carver, Thomas N., Commons, John R., Fisher, Irving, Mitchell, Wesley C., Kemmerer, Edwin W., Gay, Edwin F., Bogart, Ernest L., Clark, John M., Sprague, O. M. W., Mills, Frederick C., Slichter, Sumner H., Nourse, Edwin G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Nashville The American Economic Association 01.03.1944; American Economic Association
• Subjects: Business; Capital gains; Commercial production; Construction industries; Corporations; Economics; Employment; Full employment; Government; Private sector; Privately held corporations; Studies; Symposium by Past Presidents of the American Economic Association; Unemployment; War; United States > US
• ISSN: 0002-8282; 1944-7981

The relative sphere of government activity in our economy has increased so sharply during the past generation that some persons whose experience and views are limited to the events of current history believe that this problem is of recent origin. The relation of government to business is, however, not only a contemporary matter. All formally trained economists have come into contact with the issue of government versus private enterprise at some stage of their careers regardless of their field of study and investigation. It occurred to some of us that a sense of perspective or proportion might be obtained in the statement of the general problem if we should draw upon the accumulated experience and ripe judgment of the living past presidents of the Association. This symposium or panel discussion is a materialization of that idea.