The plan called for financing the war to the greatest extent possible through taxation and domestic borrowing. These organizations met frequently to determine how to finance the war and organize machinery for marketing United States government securities. Plans for financing the war were devised by the Treasury and the Federal Reserve. Military expenditures rose from a few hundred million a year before the war to $85 billion in 1943 and $91 billion in 1944. Accomplishing these tasks entailed paying entrepreneurs, inventors, and firms so that they, in turn, could purchase supplies, pay workers, and produce the weapons with which America’s soldiers and sailors would defeat its enemies. The military needed to recruit, train, and deploy millions of soldiers to theaters of action on six continents. The military needed to purchase thousands of ships, tens of thousands of airplanes, hundreds of thousands of vehicles, millions of guns, and hundreds of millions of rounds of ammunition. Before the war, America’s military was small, and its weapons were obsolescent. This mission differed from the mission of the System before and after the war.įinance formed a foundation for the war effort. Financing the war was the focus of the Federal Reserve’s wartime mission. prepared to use its powers to assure at all times an ample supply of funds for financing the war effort” (Board of Governors 1943, 2). When the United States entered the war, the Board of Governors issued a statement indicating that the Federal Reserve System was “.

The Allied counteroffensive began in 1942. The American “arsenal of democracy” joined the Allied nations, including Britain, France, China, the Soviet Union, and numerous others, in the fight against the Axis alliance. Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. In December 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.

In September 1939, Germany’s invasion of Poland triggered war among the principal European powers.

The economic catastrophe produced political tensions that grew throughout the 1930s. The Great Depression strained societies around the globe.

World war 2 navy ratings