In Niemeyer’s words: “Industry could not permanently prosper while the state was absorbing the greater part of investible savings” (T 176/21, fol. 26). In 1922, Blackett used the same terminology: “the fund of investible capital is reduced by the lending to the government of what might otherwise be lent to trade” (T 171/202, fol. 23). Here lies the crux of the crowdingout argument: the government is accused of diverting private savings from the investment market— money that would otherwise be invested in more productive private enterprises.

Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, loc. 954