ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the reasons why people economic system is subject to cumulative processes of expansion and contraction. It shows why, once started, such processes are cumulative and self-reinforcing. The problem is closely connected—it is indeed almost identical—with the problem of how a contraction process is started. The chapter therefore calls it the problem of the upper turning-point or crisis. The problem is identical with that of the initiating causes of the expansion. The chapter calls it therefore the problem of the lower turning-point or revival. An expansion can be brought about by an increase in the expenditures either of producers or of consumers. In the further course of the upswing, each type of expenditure stimulates the other: but here the chapter is concerned with the initiating forces. First the chapter proposes to discuss the possibilities of an increase in producers' spending—that is, of a revival in investment as the starter of an expansion.
