ABSTRACT
The economic crisis and the disarmament conference One of the things decided at the fi rst meeting of the Bureau of the Disarmament Conference was that “in view of the existing world-wide crisis, the absolute suppression of fêtes and receptions be recommended to the Conference.” (Our translation.) The Bureau of the Disarmament Conference has thus-no doubt quite innocently-taken a position on a controversial economic question of the most fundamental order. It has raised the question, To buy or not to buy? and it has recommended people not to buy as the appropriate economic course in the present crisis. Potential buyers in Geneva, and incidentally in the world in general, have been advised not to buy by a body comprising some of the world’s leading statesmen, and since this advice will surely be largely followed, we cannot let it pass unchallenged. We therefore beg to point out:— (i) That the prices of goods, securities and property have fallen to ruinous levels as the result of insuffi cient buying. (ii) That millions of workers are to-day unemployed because of the ruinous fall in prices resulting from insuffi cient buying. (iii) That thousands of capitalists are to-day insolvent because of the ruinous fall in prices resulting from insuffi cient buying. (iv) That this insuffi cient buying is being aggravated by the reduced earnings of producers and workers and the losses of capitalists, and by the fact that debtors are buying less in order to make payments, creditors are buying less because they cannot get payments, and entrepreneurs are buying less new capital equipment because of the decreased buying and decreased production of consumable goods. (v) That in fact it is generally agreed that the present crisis is, by all indications, mainly a crisis of insuffi cient buying by potential buyers. (vi) That in these circumstances potential buyers should buy as much as they can afford, and that the suppression of fêtes and receptions by such people only tends to intensify the crisis. No doubt the eminent gentlemen of the Bureau of the Disarmament Conference would readily admit that marketing-selling-is an integral and necessary
part of the economic system, but it is not clear that they feel the same about buying. Yet any tradesman in Geneva can tell them that every sale is a purchase, and every purchase is a sale.
