This paper explores the opportunities which may exist for increasing the extent to which the United Kingdom invests in capital assets, with the aim of increasing national economic growth. A number of factors thought to be relevant are examined and some apparent defects in companies' existing investment procedures are highlighted. It is suggested that a possible national strategy for the next few years might be an attempt to stimulate increased labour productivity and increased investment simultaneously. The paper tries to give some indication of the results which might be achieved if such a policy were successful. (It is assumed that a higher rate of economic growth would be desirable, and the paper does not enter into a discussion of whether non-quantifiable factors, e.g. the quality of life, are more important. This does not mean that such factors can be ignored in practice, however, and they may—quite rightly—restrain what could otherwise be done.)

1.1 This note describes an iterative method for determining the root of an equation, based on the assumption that the curve representing the equation is a rectangular hyperbola near the root.

1.2. The method was derived for use in calculating the interest rate under financial contracts. Despite having a theoretically slower rate of convergence than Newton's method, in practice the hyperbolic method seems to require a fewer number of iterations for comparable accuracy. Moreover, it applies where the form of the function being evaluated is incapable of explicit description, and hence its derivative cannot be defined, such as where reinvestment rates of return are assumed.