Note 352 — Chapter XV

I am glad to find myself in agreement with Professors Laughlin and Kemmerer in holding that this notion of Professor Fisher's is untenable. "The distinction Professor Fisher draws between the prices of individual commodities and the general price-level appears to me, as to Professor Laughlin, to be untenable. It is, moreover, contradictory to his general philosophy of money. His index numbers recognize no general price-level distinct from individual prices.... Professor Fisher's illustration of the ocean would be more apposite if he called it a lake whose level was continually changing, and if he considered each particular wave as extending to the bottom." Kemmerer, Papers and Discussions, 23d Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association, p. 53. At the same time, I agree with Professor Fisher that there must be something more fundamental than the particular prices to make the scheme work. This something I find in the absolute value of money.