number is not easy to determine beforehand. The essential 
condition is thus a positive feed back diffusing quickly through 
the group.The initial "ignition” of the process takes time and the 
extent of the epidemic is difficult to predict without a lot of 
very detailed knowledge. 
It may be surmised that the reinstatement of controls to stop an 
excess of accumulation will act in much the same way as the credit 
crunch. It will fail to stop the boom which has got out of hand 
unless it also creates a recession. Something similar might also 
be said of the starting of a boom by decontrol. It will begin to 
work only with an imitative effect of the spread of new 
enterprises and of the action of synergy which pulls together 
various branches depending on each other. 
Just as the excesses of accumulation will lead to a movement 
towards control, so the renewed troubles resulting from the 
reinstatement of burocratic controls will after some time lead to 
a renewed movement for decontrol. 
This view may seem fatalistic but it only reflects the basic fact 
that we do not know any method of macroeconomic control which 
avoids the inefficiency and ineffectiveness of burocratic methods 
which kill initiative and prevent innovation and adaptation to 
changing conditions. This is not to say that such a method may not 
be found but it is likely to take quite a long time because it can 
not be construed on the drawing board but has to be tried out in a 
lengthy and laborious process of learning of a whole society. 
It may be noted in passing that satisfactory macroeconomic 
controls and stabilisers have not been found so far in capitalism 
either. 
There seem to be three principle methods of macroeconomic control: 
The first is by a hierarchical system of commands, as in the