3 Professors Hit Optimistic Views About Recession

The relatively optimistic view of recession recovery has been contradicted recently by three University economists. They expressed doubts as to the vigor of the recovery, and one, Seymour E. Harris '20, Lucius N. Littauer Professor of Economics, severely criticized the Federal Reserve for its "indecisive" role last fall and winter,

"Recovery would have been much quicker," according to Harris, "and we would have saved billions of dollars each month had we attained the 1957 level of output by the third quarter of 1958 instead of, as now seems likely, in 1959 or 1960."

Unemployment and the Recession

James S. Duesenberry, professor of Economics, considering the unemployment aspect of the recession, felt that the present recovery trends will not be sufficient to bring unemployment below four percent. He stated that "there is no justification for basing all our policy on the assumption that excess demand is going to develop."

Commenting on the Administration's claim that the economy should undergo normal growth in the coming years, John R. Meyer, professor of Economics, claimed that the expected consumer consumption and corporate investment today are not at sufficiently high levels to assure adequate growth.

He finds only poor prospects for long-run growth in the fact that private consumers and producers have no large blocks of unsatisfied needs to be met. "The outlook is not too good," Meyer claimed, "and the present situation is also decidedly bad."