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accommodation of a low growth rate. Somewhat paradoxically,
the flexibility of the budget deficit will make the rigidity
of profit mark-ups possible. Thus if there is a floor at
all it will be provided from outside private business. I can
see no kind of automatic control, such as it exists in the
upward direction. I think the danger of the long wave theories
is that they suggest an automatic recovery from secular
stagnation, but I see no reason for this. It can only happen
by the intervention of appropriate economic policies.
As an after thought we may revisit now the old question of
the stability of distributive shares. The empirical evidence
for it is not as unshaken as it was at the time of Bowley
and of Barna's earlier work, but there may still be enough
evidence of a certain resilience of distributive shares.
The preceding analysis throws a certain light on these
questions. Upwards the profit mark-up will be limited by the
rate of growth. The automatic self-control of investment will
render a profit inflation impracticable, while, though in
conditions of full employment only, rents will be eroded
through the action of wage drift. Downwards the variation is
made difficult by oligopoly.
That the share of profit in the income of the private enterprise
sector (excluding small business) should vary only within a
certain range is therefore plausible. It must be stressed,