73: The Effect of Governmental Economic Planning Upon Employment and the Utilization of Our National Productive Powers
Chapter 73
The Effect of Governmental Economic Planning Upon Employment and the Utilization of Our National Productive Powers
In a preceding chapter we have seen the sudden collapse of the partial recovery of 1935-1937 and the sudden, extraordinarily severe and precipitous break both in the volume of business and in stock market prices running through the autumn of 1937 into the spring of 1938. At its best, the recovery, 1935-1937, did not bring levels of industrial production as high as those of 1929, seven years before.
74: Alternative Explanations of the Great Depression of 1930-1939
Chapter 74
Alternative Explanations of the Great Depression of 1930-1939
Preceding chapters have explained the great depression of 1930-1939 as due to the efforts of the governments, and very especially of the Government of the United States, to play God.
Part V: World War II
75: The Outbreak of World War II
Chapter 75
The Outbreak of World War II
At the outbreak of the war in 1914 sterling was immensely strong. It rose to $7.00 in certain transactions and remained above par until late in 1914. With the outbreak of the war in 1939 sterling broke violently from $4.68 to $3.73, rallying upon an announcement that the Bank of England would undertake to hold it between $4.02 and $4.04. But very speedily the great bulk of the sterling obligations of the British banks to the outside world were blocked. It was “official sterling” that was held at this figure.
76: Our War Economic Policy
Chapter 76
Our War Economic Policy
Contrasts Between Policies of Wilson and Roosevelt. The contrast between the war policy of the Wilson Administration in 1917 and the war policy of the Roosevelt Administration in World War II is in many ways extraordinary. Governmental measures in the first World War were taken for the purpose of winning the war. They were clean-cut. They were highly intelligent. They were not complicated, in general, by political considerations. They were not mixed with the desire for the aggrandizement of Governmental power.
77: War Taxation and Expenditures
Chapter 77
War Taxation and Expenditures
Our Best Fiscal Achievement—Taxation. The best achievement of the Government in World War II in war finance and in the functional control of prices was in the field of taxation.
78: Government Borrowing in World War II
Chapter 78
Government Borrowing in World War II
The great reason why we had lost perspective is to be found in the borrowing policy of the Government. The Congress had had little to do with this borrowing policy. The Treasury asked for authority and the Treasury received it. The borrowing policy could hardly have been worse.
79: Price Fixing in World War II
Chapter 79
Price Fixing in World War II
The original intention in the price-fixing legislation was not universal price fixing. The powers which the Congress gave were sweeping powers, but the Congress was assured by the Administrator, Leon Henderson, that he intended only to fix certain prices.
80: Government versus Private Financing of War Production in World War II
Chapter 80
Government versus Private Financing of War Production in World War II
First War Chiefly Private Finance; Second War, Government Finance. In 1941 a high official in the Government loan organization stated privately that the decision had been made that war production should be financed by Government money rather than by private money. This turned out to be the case.
81: Lend-Lease, Bretton Woods, and the British Loan—England’s Postwar Position
Chapter 81
Lend-Lease, Bretton Woods, and the British Loan—England’s Postwar Position
In World War I, Britain and France and their allies were able to finance their own purchases of commodities from the outside world, chiefly the United States, from the outbreak of the war in 1914 until our entrance into the war in April of 1917. This story is told in an earlier chapter. They sent us gold, they resold American securities to us, and they borrowed through bonds placed with American investors through investment banking syndicates.
