This group of electronic files represents a small share of a collection of writings on inflation, 1933-1941, along with a cover letter from John T. McCutcheon, Jr. in donating the materials to special Collections, 1989. The letter is followed by few clippings from various New York newspapers--the Evening Post, the Journal of Commerce, and the Wall Street Journal--from August 3 to August 18, 1933 about inflation. At the time the administration of President Roosevelt was using the money supply as a means to restart the economy, with inflation being one impact. The price of gold for the overnment was changed from $32 to $35 per ounce, thus increasing the money suppply.  

The collection includes also:

1. a binder with sixteen New York Times articles in a series on money and inflation, September 25 to October 10, 1933.  

2. Philip G. Wright, Inflation and After: Case Studies of the Effects of Inflation in France, Germany and Austria (1935)

3. Walter S. Landis, An Engineer Looks at Inflation: Its Effects in Germany and France (1933, 1938 reprint)

4. _______, Inflationary Effects of Current Administration Policies  (1938)

5. W. M. Kiplinger and Frederick Shelton, Inflation Ahead! What to Do About It (1935) [B. Cahn's copy]

6. Walter Earl Spahr, What Can Be Done By Our government to Avoid Inflation Losses? (1941)

7. E. W. Axe and R. E. Houghton, Inflation and the Investor (1934)  [Tiffany blake's copy]

8. Harry Scherman, Will We Have Inflation [proof for first article in a series for the Saturday Evening Post for April 9, 1941; the series later was published as a book.]

9. "Inflation may be Halted in 1937," press release of  the Alex. hamilton Institute, New York, 1937, 2 pp.  

Since the 2008 financial panic was the first such since the 1929 crash and subsequent Great Depression of the 1930s, it may be interesting to examine this group of writings and their concerns in light of the easing of the money supply by the Roosevelt administration.  In Lake Forest's west countryside, now Mettawa, the James R. Getzes bought in 1938 sixty acres of farmland for an estate for $22,000.  Mrs. Getz reported that the farmer/owner had turned down an offer of $60,000 in 1929.  Thus, deflation was still the main issue.  It took the Second World War, 1941-45, price controls in this country and the release of the pent-up demand and savings in 1945 to send prices into a rapid rise: inflation.  But the policies of the Roosevelt administration in easing the money supply were not sufficient to to raise land prices above about a third of their 1929evels nine years later.  

Those with resources in the mid 1930s and relying on the income from investments were concerned about watering their dollar values.  inflation and the Investor above, 1934, already was giving some sensible advice" it would be better, as it was in Germany, to have funds outside the contry during the early stages of the inflation but during the later stages it would [be] better to hold funds in domestic stocks and commodities than to hold them in gold" (p. 17).

These primary sources from the first eight years of the roosevelt presidency, 1933-1941, may offer some insight into the current public policy discussion.  

Mr. McCutcheon's letter mentions a larger Social Security collection given earlier, and full bibliographic items from this have been sent (March 2013) for processing as books into Special Collections, though other material has not been retained.