[ECONOMICS] [GREAT DEPRESSION] FISHER, Irving
Stable Money: A History of the Movement
New York: Adelphi Company, 1934. First, Limited Edition. Octavo (21cm). Blue textured cloth boards; spine lettered in gilt; xxiii, 484pp. No. 725 of an unspecified number in the first, limited issue, signed on presentation bookplate by Irving Fisher, Frederic A. Delano (as President of the Stable Money Association), and James Rand, Jr. (as Chairman of the Committee for the Nation). This copy presented to Paul H. Allen (1911-1963), noted botanist, specialist on orchids and rain forest ecosystems. Light external dusting and wear; spine gilt very slightly dulled; internally clean, tight and unmarked. A solidly VG or better copy. Lacking the presumed jacket (though we have never seen a jacketed copy of any of Fisher's several books with this publisher). Rare signed copy of this key work by economist Irving Fisher, the chief American exponent of monetarist philosophy and the founder of the Stable Money League. Though Milton Friedman once proclaimed him "the greatest economist the U.S. has ever produced," Fisher is perhaps best remembered today for his immortal prediction of October 16, 1929, just two weeks prior to the Great Crash: "...Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau." Despite the apparently high number of the limitation, this presentation issue must be considered rare. It was produced for prominent members of the Stable Money League, "in recognition of pioneer support of the movement for a Stable Measure of Value." A list of such "pioneers," numbering about 3000 individuals (but curiously not including the recipient of this copy), appears in the Appendix to this volume - whether each of these 3000 members received a signed copy of the book is doubtful, as we find no other signed examples in current commerce or in historical auction records for the past 20 years.
