17 
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,