The International Economic Problem

Abstract

The following notes do not pretend in any way to be a detailed plan of action. But since, in the next few months, in consequence of the change of administration in the United States and the conclusions reached by the recent meeting of Commonwealth ministers, we are likely to be confronted with many international discussions and many plans of action, it seems worth while trying to get into some sort of perspective the main problems with which they will all be concerned. The fundamental standpoint is local and pedestrian. Each problem and each proposal is judged from the point of view of the U.K. interest; and that interest is estimated, not as it might be in a perfectly rational world, but rather as it is in the world of the present day with its manifold imperfections and its desperate irrationalities.