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.
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.
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 !
The spending and borrowing during WWII went into mostly privately owned infrastructure if I’m not mistaken. What did the Stimulus buy? Bureaucrats?
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.
Excuse me, but there was no unemployment during WWII. There weren’t many consumer goods, but output was about as high as it possibly could have been.
WWII ended unemployment.
When you take all of the unemployed men, put them in a uniform, hand them a rifle, then send them overseas, they are no longer unemployed.
Wars end unemployment the same way that arming your children and sending them out to kill neighbors ends their overindulging in the playing of video games.
There is a problem here. In 1945 through 1946, returning armed services personel found little jobs to do. there become oppotunities for employment, education and so forth when America changed from a war production to civil consumer production. Housing construction boomed, veterans benefits for higher education boomed private enteurnership boomed too. Cunningham needs to have his facts straight before he airs them on the radio. Oh I forget Cunningham is a conservative radio host that has a tendency to insert his foot in his moth because he refuses to be prepared with the facts before speaking. No wonder Cunningham has the tendency to cause more controversy than make factual comments.
No significant competition helps a bunch.