Classical Economics During World War II

World War II brought difficulties in the economic side of things. When the war ended, reduction in the consumption meant that less jobs for the people. Additionally, Americans’ were unemployable because of jobs not being

Two major economic thinkers of the of the early twentieth century, John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich A. Hayek, hold very different economic viewpoints. Keynes is among the most famous economic philosophers. Keynes, who's theories gained a reputation during the Great Depression in the 1930s, focused mainly on an economy's bust. It is where the economy declines and finally bottoms-out, that Keynesian economics believes the answers lie for its eventual recovery. On the other hand, Hayek believed that in studying the boom answers would be provided to lead the economy out of the bust that was sure to follow. Hayek backed the Austrian school of economics.

Final Exam: Between the beginning of World War II and the present decade, the United States underwent significant reform through key legislative acts, which addressed race relations, poverty, and gender. Explain these different categories of reform, their early proponents, their evolution into legislation, and whether or not this legislation truly addressed the issues.

World War II began near the end of the worst financial crisis in American history, the Great Depression. In October 1929 the stock market crashed leading to a economic collapse that would become known as the Great Depression. The depression went on to devastate the American economy throughout the 1930’s until its end in the 1940’s. Around this time, Nazi imperialism and frayed international relationships were setting the stage for the largest global conflict ever. World War II ended the Great Depression through increasing government spending, expanding the job market, and growing the national economy. The New Deal attempted to achieve these goals, but was largely unsuccessful.

During the Great depression, British economist John Maynard Keynes developed what is known as the Keynesian economics. Keynesian economics is an economic theory of aggregate demand or the total spending in the economy. (Investopedia, LLC., 2003)

In the midst of World War II, bread could be purchased for around $0.10, less than $1,000 for a brand new car, and a nice middle class house would sell for around $4,000 - $6,000. However, in our current day we all know these items, along with everything else, cost much more today than they did during the second world war, a substantially greater amount. This shows that we experienced a noteworthy amount of inflation since the war. Shortly thereafter, in the mid-to-late 1970s, inflation skyrocketed to double-digit levels, which threw America into hysteria. Ever since, the general publics anxiety dwindled along with inflation rates, but the same public is still timid when it comes in regard to inflation, even though we have recently experienced minimal levels over the past few years. Even though most everyone knows that prices go up over time, they still do not fully understand the forces behind inflation. Hopefully some of the uncertainties are clarified in the following paper. Inflation, along with purchasing power, is depicted and elucidated in terms with how the two are congruent to one another. Also, this paper notes how measurements are taken to predict future interest rates, which helps everyone from consumers to producers, so they can be prepared for the change in value of their dollar.

Wage and price controls were enforced in the United States during World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. In 1942, the United States government began wage and price controls in order to help win World War II and maintain the general quality of life. The Office of Price Administration (OPA) was established in 1941 and their mission was to avoid profiteering and inflation as goods became in short supply in the United States due to the war. The Emergency Price Control Act of 1942 gave the OPA the ability to regulate prices in the marketplace, and brought 60 percent of all civilian food items under a form of control which froze prices at their store-by-store March 1942 levels. (Wage-Price Control, 2008) President

The New Deal and World War II both had an effect on race relations in the American West. President Roosevelt’s New Deal was an attempt to fix the hardships of the Great Depression. The Great Depression brought about a change in ideology and opinion that made the New Deal possible because of public support to fix the burdens felt by many Americans, not just whites. World War II brought fear, intolerance and increased racism toward minority groups in the West, specifically Japanese and Hispanic. Class and ethnic differences, as well as wartime tension led to growing hostility between whites and immigrants. However, the New Deal and World War II also improved on previous race relations resulting in shifts in Native American communities, ideology and their place in society. Both the New Deal and World War II were large scale, impactful events that shaped race relations negatively and positively during the first half of the twentieth century.

In the economic aspect, the war ended the Great Depression. (Winkler,1986) In 1940, money was being spent to aid the war effort and in return boosted the American economy. (Winkler,1986) The production of war necessities such as weapons opened up door for the unemployed. (Winkler,1986) Millions of unemployed Americans returned to work to make the weapons of war needed to protect the United States. (Winkler,1986) “During the war 17 million new civilian jobs were created, industrial productivity increased by 96 percent, and corporate profits after taxes doubled.” (Goodwin,1992) War needs directly consumed over one-third of the output of industry causing a slight decrease in consumer goods production. (Goodwin,1992) U.S economy converted to wartime production therefore most consumer goods were

     After World War I, new technological improvements helped factories to produce higher quantities of goods using smaller amounts of employees. Fewer workers meant less money being redistributed to the consumers to purchase products. America didn’t have a necessity for this higher quantity of goods with less people

The world had faced two main economic problems. The first one was the Great Depression in the early of 20th Century. The second was the recent international financial crisis in 2008. The United States and Europe suffered severely for a long time from the great depression. The great depression was a great step and changed completely the economic policy making and the economic thoughts. It was not only an economic situation bit it was also miserable making, made people more attention and aggressive until they might lose their lives. All the society was frightened from losing money, work and stable. In America the housing market was the main factor of the great depression. A crisis of liquidity appeared in the banks forming a credit crunch. This period was influenced by over extended stock market shortage of water in the south and over trusting. The American government put down some regulations to control the productions which were essential for the war.

War is controversial, unfortunate, and certainly misunderstood; it is a transforming agent, a catalyst for change. Nonetheless, many people focus on war's negative consequences, while positive effects are downplayed. War is a necessary evil in the sense that it stabilizes population, encourages technological advances, and has a very high economic value. Without war, the overpopulation of the human race is inevitable. It is this reason that war is a useful tool by not only Mother Nature, but also humans themselves to institute population control.

The period of economic prosperity following the end of World War II until the 1970s recession is often referred to as the ‘Golden Age of Capitalism’. It can be argued that the Second World War, unlike the First World War, raised the global economy into full-fledged recovery with superior benefits to the US which had become the new world hegemon.

Wars are expensive (in money and other resources), destructive (of capital and human capital), and disruptive (of trade, resource availability, labor management). Large wars make up severe shocks to the economies of participating countries. Despite some positive aspects of short-term stimulation and long-term destruction and rebuilding, war generally impedes economic

developed his theory based on the Adam Smith’s theory. Keynes did not entirely disagree with