PREFACE: This report represents the deliberations of a diverse group of American citizens. They were assisted by an able staff of scholars and by a group of advisers of great competence. The members of the Commission were deliberately selected with the advice of a distinguished Selection Com- mittee to provide a group of men with different backgrounds: banking, business, government, labor, and the professions. All members had broad, practical economic experience. It could fairly be said that their con- clusions represent a consensus of American philosophy and economic judgment today. No member of the Commission, whether or not he has written or joined in specific footnotes, endorses personally every specific proposal in its entirety or concurs fully with every statement in the supporting analysis, but all approve the major substance of the report and urge careful consideration of its interrelated recommendations. The funds for this effort were provided by the Ford Foundation, the Merrill Foundation, and the Committee for Economic Development. None of these organizations exerted the slightest pressure. There were no restrictions as to the scope and method of the work, and certainly no restrictions as to the judgments reached. This report is deliberately short, perhaps too short in view of the vital importance of the areas covered. The purpose was to gain more readers. We have not attempted to set forth in the report itself the mass of evidence on which our recommendations and conclusions are based. Much of the material used in reaching conclusions will be published separately as supporting papers. These will appear under the names of their authors with no indication of concurrence or disagreement by members of the Commission, its advisers, or its staff. They will be pub- lished for the benefit of those dealing with the same problems and to stimulate scholars to probe further into areas where firm knowledge is patently inadequate. The Commission hopes that many Americans will be interested to read the entire report, because any summary in matters of such complexity as those discussed suffers by oversimplification. The reader will no doubt gain the impression that this report stresses particularly the significance of government in our affairs, using the term government in its broadest sense. This is natural since the subject of the Commission's work is the responsibility of governmental institutions in promoting the success of our economy. The Commission recognizes that our society is based upon the dy- namics of the market place. Individual decisions largely determine the direction and growth of our product and its distribution. The greater part of American activity by far is based upon the private sector. What is emphasized is the important and vital complementary role of govern- ment in helping a relatively free society to do a better job-and a better job does not envisage economic Utopia. Although the Commission is concerned with the attainment of our national goals, it recommends no precise and specific formula for this purpose. To do so would be inconsistent with our traditions and prac- tices and probably totally unrealistic. If we are to be free, some fluctuation in our economic growth pattern is unavoidable. If the Commission's recommendations were to be adopted, one could hope and expect that the degree of fluctuations might be further reduced. They have been reduced in the last decade. A fundamental and basic element in this report is the recommendation that the help of government in its various phases requires more liaison between the different institutions involved and more coordination. The significant role of the President in this regard is pointed out but that is not to say that the Chief of State is solely responsible for the success of a free country which must grow and prosper by the individual initiative, industry, and judgment of free citizens. FRAZAR B. WILDE, Chairman, Commission on Money and Credit. (ÖNSÖZ)