ABSTRACT
One foundation block of conventional theory, the extremum principle, received its most thoroughgoing vindication in classical Economics. There it was treated as avowing a universal propensity which comes with us from the womb, and never leaves us till we go into the grave. This notion of an anima natura maximans has been perpetuated in much of neo-classical reasoning, at least when the action directives of sellers of commodities are discussed. In the course of 1962, supported by the slump in the stock market, the conviction became universal that drastic government action was required to prevent another and more serious recession. From this came the Administration's proposals for tax reduction, only to be confounded by a quite unforeseen autonomous spurt in economic activity beginning in the early months of 1963. All this is not to deny that on some occasions economic predictions turned out right.
