Posted on 11/07/2010 10:39:14 PM PST by Arthur McGowan
Government spending can jumpstart the economy in wartime. Every factory was pushed into 24/7 production of war material. Especially when millions of working-age men are drafted out of the labor force.
...and the numbers of major items produced was staggering.
The US produced almost 300,000 aircraft during the war. 44,000 Sherman tanks. 650,000 Jeeps. 675,000 2 1/2 ton trucks.
The wartime economy wasn’t natural or healthy. After the war ended, there was another nasty recession.
Agreed. The Great American Bill Cuningham seems a bit dull at times. The Depression ended when the GOP took over the congress and FDR died after the war. FDR nursed that depression like his own baby to further his socialism.
I caught that too. The thing of it is the ‘government spending’ that took place was not the same because it was hiring private companies to manufacture products; putting people to work. This maniacal government is spending...period. There is nothing being produced.
Cunningham seemed to catch himself though because he did say that it was FDR’s policies that extended the depression.
The depression ended when a GOP congress ended many of the regulations that the Truman adminstration wanted to keep in place.
Unlike the British, the Americans were tired with living with rationing, which is the 'ideal' for the liberals.
“Government spending can jumpstart the economy in wartime. Every factory was pushed into 24/7 production of war material. Especially when millions of working-age men are drafted out of the labor force.”
They had to. The future of the country, indeed the entire world was at stake. Nobody was going to sit around waiting for their UI checks to arrive in the mail.
Yes, the government can goose the economy by spending astronomical amounts of money...but it should also be pointed out that the government controlled virtually every aspect of the economy during the war years; price controls, shortages, rationing.
My point is that nobody should take the war years as being anything but a profoundly distorted period, economy wise, as far from “normal” as imaginable. And thus not usuable as a comparison to/for anything. Unemployment was probably 1.5% or something completely unattainable. If we had unemplyment at those levels we’d have hordes of illegals streaming over the border in incontrollable waves....oh wait...
Optimism can be achieved in various ways.
I believe a positive person like Sarah Palin with well reasoned economic policy would be enough to change the whole picture.
“The thing of it is the ‘government spending’ that took place was not the same because it was hiring private companies to manufacture products; putting people to work. This maniacal government is spending...period. There is nothing being produced.”
Yes, the Obama stimulus was little more than pork-barrel projects and handouts to those who gave money to the DNC. It didn’t produce anything.
Let’s look at the 1930s and ‘40s for a moment. The economy hit rock bottom in 1931-32 and then gradually recovered from 1933-36. Then FDR’s New Deal policies kick in and caused a new recession in 1937-38. Things start improving again in 1939, and then as the government ups defense spending in 1940-41, the Depression formally ends. Then comes the rationed wartime economy of 1942-45. 1946-48 are again rather difficult years due to high inflation and the slow process of returning to a peacetime economy. It wasn’t really until 1949 that the last trace of the Depression was banished.
Interesting. Thank you for the history lesson.
More like 1948. That was part of the reason that the GOP was swept into power that November.
For good sources on this, I point out historian biographer David McCullough’s ‘Truman’ and the archives of old time radio shows of that year — notably the monologues and gags of Jack Benny and Fred Allen who harped on Truman and DC Democrats mercilessly in 1948 over the economy, shortages, and general malaise. A great many returning GIs, both combat veterans and occupation forces came back to absolutely jack squat as far as jobs and opportunities.
And when WWII ended, we had no equals. No one to really compete with us economically. Certainly, the Soviets were our biggest military threat. But no one was our economic equal.
And we’ve thrown just about every trump away and we’re in debt over our heads!
Wartime spending is destruction spending that only causes recessions afterwards.
What pulled us out of depression was the return of GI’s buying products that were made here. Yes, we used to actually have factories in the US !
Boy that is so true, to watch clips from entertainers of that time they where not so happy with policies of the 1930’s. It was cutting of spending after WWII in my mind that got us back on track. If Bernanke would stop printing money would we be better off? During the depression people could not afford to pay their utilities and their rent/housing at the same time. With commodities rising again is that our fate?
The spending and borrowing during WWII went into mostly privately owned infrastructure if I’m not mistaken. What did the Stimulus buy? Bureaucrats?
Most media like to forget about the UAW's racist past...
If you look at the Dow as a proxy for the US economy it was at 380 before the crash and 174 on VJ day. The market had recovered somewhat between 1932 and 1937 but remained flat throughout the war.
The market did not return to pre-crash levels until 1958. That’s 26 years of recovery, 13 of them AFTER the war.
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