Once Doubt Begins It Spreads Rapidly.

The Book, As It Stands, Seems To Me To Be One Of The Most Frightful Muddles I Have Ever Read, With Scarcely A Sound Proposition In It Beginning With Page 45 [hayek Provided Historical Background Up To Page 45; After That Came His Theoretical Model], And Yet It Remains A Book Of Some Interest, Which Is Likely To Leave Its Mark On The Mind Of The Reader. It Is An Extraordinary Example Of How, Starting With A Mistake, A Remorseless Logician Can End Up In Bedlam.

Of The Maxims Of Orthodox Finance None, Surely, Is More Anti-social Than The Fetish Of Liquidity, The Doctrine Of That It Is A Positive Virtue On The Part Of Investment Institutions To Concentrate Their Resources Upon The Holding Of 'liquid' Securities. It Forgets That There Is No Such Thing As Liquidity Of Investment For The Community As A Whole.

The Time Has Already Come When Each Country Needs A Considered National Policy About What Size Of Population, Whether Larger Or Smaller Than At Present Or The Same, Is Most Expedient. And Having Settled This Policy, We Must Take Steps To Carry It Into Operation. The Time May Arrive A Little Later When The Community As A Whole Must Pay Attention To The Innate Quality As Well As To The Mere Numbers Of Its Future Members.

The Markets Are Moved By Animal Spirits, And Not By Reason.

An Investor Who Proposes To Ignore Near-term Market Fluctuations Needs Greater Resources For Safety And Must Not Operate On So Large A Scale, If At All, With Borrowed Money.