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US Economy During 1940-1950

  • May 16, 1940

    President Roosevelt calls for immediate appropriation of $896 million to increase production facilities for Army and Navy national defense to build airplanes, antiaircraft guns, and weapons increasing factory production and increasing workforce.
  • March 11, 1941

    The Lend-Lease policy was enacted to provide U.S. military aid to foreign nations enabling the U.S export of $32.5 billion worth of goods.
  • May, 1941

    War Bonds created for citizens to make an economic contribution to the war effort and to generate federal tax revenue.
  • January, 1942

    President Roosevelt established a new mobilization agency, The War Production Board, to handle the complex problem of administering the war economy by balancing the needs of citizens against the needs of the military.
  • July, 1943

    President Roosevelt created the Office of War Mobilization to administer everything from labor, to merchant ship building, and from prices, to food.
  • 1944

    Bill of Rights to provide money for veterans to attend college, get homes, and farms.
  • 1944

    World Bank and International Monetary Funds established to fund loans for the rebuilding of railroads, highways, and infrastructure and smooth world commerce by reducing foreign exchange restrictions.
  • 1945

    The Manhattan Project, a scientific breakthrough of the creation of a controlled nuclear chain reaction, or the atomic bomb, which was an anomaly in the broader war economy as the technological innovation propelled sectors of aerospace and engineering.
  • 1946

    Employment Act to promote employment, production, and purchasing power and lay the economic responsibility of economic stability of inflation and unemployment on the government.
  • 1947

    The Marshall Plan was created to pay $23 billion for commodities and services to aid European countries while maintaining markets for US goods. It helped increase industrialization and agriculture.