ABSTRACT
It would, of course, be a matter of complete indifference if each method would equally certainly and with equal speed and ease lead to the same final equilibrium - a set of conditions that presumably applied to Tommy's and Mary's pennies. But there are at least three reasons why the analogy may break down in the case of the 'expenditures' of demand management and of wage-fixing on the 'purchases' of full employment and control of inflation: the different strategies may not in fact lead to exactly the same final outcomes; one instrument may be more effective in its use for one purpose than for another so that it is not a matter of indifference how the weapons and targets are married to each other; and there may be a number of conditions that are not strictly economic - namely, political and administrative - that in fact tell in favour of one strategy rather than another.
