Reply To: de Soto and Effect of Voluntary Savings

#17109
jmherbener
Participant

It would be helpful in formulating a response if you could give the page number of the quote so we can read its context. In the meantime, below is a general comment on the process of adjustment in the market to more saving and less consumption.

When people save more and consume less. demands for consumer goods fall and their prices decline. As their production become unprofitable, entrepreneurial demand for the specific capital goods produced in the lower stages declines and their production becomes less profitable. At the same time, the additional saving lowers interest rates making other investment projects more profitable. The demands for resources to produce these capital projects increases. Their production lengthens out the structure of production as its buildup will prove to be profitable in the future with the new array of prices.

This entire processes of price adjustment is difficult to condense into a paragraph. I suggest you read Murray Rothbard’s discussion of the same phenomenon in Man, Economy, and State, chapter 8, and then post any followup questions you have. Rothbard systematically explains how prices and production adjust throughout the production structure to restore the interest return in all production processes after a voluntary increase in saving-investing.

http://library.mises.org/books/Murray%20N%20Rothbard/Man,%20Economy,%20and%20State,%20with%20Power%20and%20Market.pdf

Also, take a look at Bob Murphy’s study guide to Man, Economy, and State, for chapter 8.

http://library.mises.org/books/Robert%20P%20Murphy/Study%20Guide%20of%20Man,%20Economy,%20and%20State.pdf