Picker, Tischgesprache, entry for 4th May 1942. In this connection see also Gerhard Meinck, 'Hitler und die deutsche Aufrustung 1933-1937'; and especially Rene Erbe, 'Die nationalsozialistische Wirtschaftspolitik im Lichte der modernen Theorie' (Zurich, 1958). The latter excellent study, free from polemical assessment, produces extensive evidence to show that National Socialist economic policy was carried on to the detriment rather than the benefit of the people. Already in 1934 49 per cent of public expenditure was invested in the armaments industry; by 1938, it was 79 per cent. To finance this, a method was developed which on one hand led to an inflationary development concealed by price controls and various compulsory measures, and on the other, brought about as a consequence the quiet dispossession of all savers and policy-holders. The advantageous general economic development was by no means reflected in a generally higher standard of living: for example, in 1938 wages and salaries had declined to approximately 57 per cent of the national income. The core of the National Socialist economic policy was not, as had been unceasingly proclaimed, work and bread, but arms and war; at no time were work and bread a primary aim but only a concomitant.