Show THE HIGH COST OF CHEAP MONEY widows and orphans among chief losers from unsound currency E E AGGER CITES experience speculators rather than investors and producers win from currency depreciation the losses and costs borne by the government and the people of the united states from unsound money experiments from colonial times down doubtless total more than our staggering world war appropriations it Is declared by B E E B agger an authority on economics in the journal 0 of the american bankers Can kers association so cheap money he says Is very costly since frenzied finance speculation and business disaster have invariably followed in the wake of unsound currency he cites historical experience showing that widows and orphans were among the chief sufferers new generations of adults like children have to learn over and over again that when playing with fire one runs the risk of being burned mr agger says indulging currency heresies her esies constitutes such an adult playing with fire A glance over our own historical experience would do demonstrate in on strate this 0 0 the most ardent easy money advocate but such advocates are usually those to whom history Is bunk soft money advocates seek profit unfortunately those who are willing to kindle the kind of 0 conflagration involved in soft money experimentation are not the only ones hurt indeed they may extort an advantage tor for themselves but tho the record Is all too clear concerning the mass of people heavy losses injustice disorganized production and numerous other evils are inevitable unsound money projects impose heavy costs on the government itself the first effect ot of cheap money Is to raise prices mounting prices mean that to meet its needs the government must appropriate always larger sums again dallying with unsound money weakens the governments credit prospective bond buyers become hesitant when currency depreciation is threatened because there la Is danger of agitation toward the payment of government obligations in tha cheaper money rather than in specie any such weakening ot of go credit means lower prices received tor for bonds consequently greater burdens on the treasury assuming that in the ei sound principles triumph the indulgences of the unsound currency days leave further costs to be met if f paper money has hag been issued it must be redeemed if a government be unwilling to stoop to repudiation it must raise much moro more i i taxes to pay tor for the paper money than it re calved at the time ot of issue the total effect ot of paper issues in increasing the cost coat ot of the civil war la Is estimated at about mr agger says continuing much more serious than the costs ot of unsound currency to the government are the heavy direct and indi costs imposed upon tho the people our productive system is controlled through prices and the upset ot of prices caused by a depreciating currency interferes ter feres with the proper harmonizing ot of the different lines ot of production price changes are not instantaneously or uniformly effected throughout the whole system the result of an inflationary movement is a stimulation of speculation and over investment to lu some lines with inadequate develop ment in other lines the period of 0 speculation seems a period 0 of prosper ity but how false and unsound Is such prosperity Is disclosed in the stress and agony of the inevitable period ot of liquidation which nemesis like follows on the heels of the boom wealth unfairly redistributed distributed re mr agger then describes the als ng effects of an unsound money on the distribution of wealth among classes and individuals cheapening money through inflationary ants la is a gigantic fraud upon the creditor classes as against debtors all those dependent on fixed incomes or receiving specified sums in terms ot of money are penalized when the purchasing power of money Is depressed in like manner tho the stockholder profits at the expense of the bondholder a tact fact which implies a reward to the more speculatively inclined at the expense expanse of the conservative advancing prices cause discontent and elva rise to agitation and unrest among those wil whose cannot promptly be adjusted to meet higher living costs cost strikes are lomen omen teI lad and production Is curtailed everybody shares in these burdens lack ot of stability in money also undermines and weakens habits of 0 thrift A corrosion of 0 the moral integrity ot of the people is inevitable dishonesty is stimulated and a desire to gain by speculation rather thin than to turn a livelihood by product v v and useful labor causes a m inar irlies ir liei lied t ti r t i nn in in 11 popular habitat nr ari il i a ft |