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A great change appears to be under way in the relation of industrial production and trade to foods and raw materials. For perhaps three-quarters of a century, the problem had been whether the industrial countries could absorb the food and raw materials which they had been instrumental in developing in other countries, on terms of trade tolerable to the latter. Now the imbalance appears to be swinging the other way. Owing partly to the expansion of industrial output in Europe under the Marshall Plan and even more to the U.S. absorption of raw materials, in the consumer durable goods industries as well as in the capital goods industries, there is a general world problem of availability of supplies. Again, this problem has been much accentuated by the rearmament program. But it was becoming apparent even before Korea. World industrial production since 1938 has grown by some 50 per cent, while the output of food and raw materials has at most increased by 10 per cent. Some experts have estimated that, apart from the U.S., the world's food production is now lower than before the war. If few items are taken out, such as petroleum and aluminum, this may well be true also of the raw materials.

The article presents information on a research regarding foreign trade of Latin America during the World War I. Foreign exchange fluctuations have occurred in response to commercial and financial exchanges in Latin American countries during the war. Many countries started credit exchange conventions with a purpose of exchange stabilization without resorting to gold shipments. Argentina made such an arrangement with the U.S. Most of the Latin American nations including Brazil showed a low level of exchange rate during the war than the levels of pre-war years.

The article presents information related to the American Economic Association. John H. Williams of Harvard University has been appointed the chairman of the American Economic Association for the year 1953. Some members of the association who have retired from their profession include Julius B. Bearnson, professor of economics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah; Orval Bennett, professor of business and government at Washington University, St. Louis; Pembroke H. Brown, professor of economics, University of Illinois; and E. C. Stone, professor at University of Pittsburgh. A visual economic laboratory has been established at Columbia University in November 1951. The laboratory had been financed for a year by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and trustees of the Foundation have made an additional grant to cover the budget of the laboratory until November 1953. The Social Science Research Council has announced a new program of stipends and fellowships designed to identify and assist able students at an early stage of their education.

This article presents developments related to economic societies and economists in the U.S. The annual meeting of the American Economic Association will be held in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 27-29, 1951. Arrangements this year are again being made on an independent rather then a joint basis, in accordance with the plan adopted in December, 1949. Alfred C. Neal, vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, has been appointed chairman of the local arrangements committee. The president of the association, John H. Williams is responsible for the program and would appreciate suggestions of topics and speakers. Gardner Ackley, of the University of Michigan, is serving a economic adviser to the administrator of the Economic Stabilization Agency. Karl M. Arndt has been granted extended leave from the University of Nebraska to continue as a member of the staff of the Council of Economic Advisers to the President. Thomas Balogh will be visiting professor in the summer session of the University of Minnesota.