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A few days ago I inquired on the origin of the expression "a sloom followed 
by a bump", used by Robertson in 1948. I have reasons to suspect that 
Robertson wasn't the originator of the expression, because in 1939 James  
Meade seemed to attribute the expression to Hayek. 
 
In his kind reply to my query, Roger Sandilands indicates that Robertson 
used this expression  in his review in the March 1935 Economic Journal of 
Lauchlin Currie's "The Supply and Control of Money in the United States" 
(Harvard 1934). Roger suggested that the expression could have been 
invented by Robertson himself. 
 
Roger and I have exchanged some correspondence on that, and it turns out 
that after all Robertson could have borrowed the expression from someone 
else: in fact, he quotes it in inverted commas: 
 
'True it is that in the American experience of 1922-29 -- the "sloom 
followed by a bump" -- long-term deflationary and short-term inflationary 
forces seem to have been intertwined in a most puzzling skein which it 
still remains for history completely to disentangle.' 
 
The problem is therefore still open. And Meade's attribution to Hayek could 
after all be correct. I have checked the obvious sorces, but it could be 
buried in some review or 'minor' writing by Hayek. 
 
Again: can anyone help? Thank you. 
 
Daniele Besomi 
 
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