2 SURVEY OF THE GENERAL ECONOMIC POSITION. Introduction. 1. This Survey reviews the distribution of our resources at a time when we are likely to be confronted by particularly significant and important problems of readjustment. The immediate future, as far as the United Kingdom is con- cerned, is dominated by the shortage of man-power. By the end of 1943 we shall have reached a stage of total mobilisation which cannot long be maintained, and we shall be faced with the difficult task of allocating a diminishing total of manpower available for the war effort.