UNFAVOURABLE FACTS.
And to take the worst side of the picture first, it has to be recorded that the year closes with an actual increase in the numbers of unemployed in this country and probably throughout the world. Indeed, the figures are staggering, for, including the United States, it is generally reckoned that there must be at least 25,000,000 people now ranking as unemployed persons. For the investor and the taxpayer the year has been one of the most trying on record, the more so because by the- mere process of attrition the burden of taxes and financial losses having increased from year to year. Not a few holders of Foreign Loans have suffered loss in their income through defaults, and these losses have come upon the top of the heavy taxation. Nor must it be forgotten that while holders of the 5 per cent. War Loan have suffered no loss but in most cases have received a bonus during 1932, there is the prospective reduction in income to be faced. Financial houses and banking institutions must have suffered severely from the many ill conse- quences of the continued world depression. The Kreuger frauds discovered early in the year meant losses of millions to more than one financial centre, while finance and industry alike have been hit heavily by the chaotic conditions on the Continent and the exchange restrictions which have contracted the volume of international trade.
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