Ww2 Economic Boom For The Us -- Why?

[RETAC21]

It should be noted though that GB stepped willingly into that war, when CZ was left in the lurch. If they hadnt gone to war over Poland, Germany would rule the Balkans and eventually fight the Russians, which more or less leads to the historical result...

 

And the US could have been really neutral and earn money out of the Axis too.

[DB]

Now that would have been a proper mess, with the UK attempting to interdict US deliveries of "stuff" across the Atlantic.

 

I don't think that it's wise to criticise the US for taking our money when we wanted to buy stuff. They certainly opened up the line of credit wide and also gave us the largest chunk of Marshall Plan money, and also post-war loans outwith the Plan were quite forthcoming.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan#Expenditures

 

Of course, how we chose to spend it is another matter.

[Mobius]

Gold! The US had 8 billion in gold in 1935. It was sitting on over 22.7 billion in gold Dec 1941. 3.7 billion came in in 1939 and 4.7 in 1940. That is it's own gold. It also found a place for other countries gold. Total government spending in 1940 was 117 billion.

 

Kind of odd as the greater amount of gold imports in 1940-1941 came from Canada. Canada didn't have reason to buy things in gold from the US so this probably is UK transfer payments.

 

So besides having a massive army in 1946 the US dollar was worth something.

Edited March 15, 2016 by Mobius

[Cinaruco]

Since this is the King Sargent Military History forum, I propose a different title. How did the burning of Carthage gave an economic boon to Rome?

[Colin]

Canada was struggling to come up with the cash to buy stuff in the early war period from my reading, many of the corvettes we shipped over lacked many of the basic fittings as there was no money to buy them from the suppliers.

[Mobius]

Canada was struggling to come up with the cash to buy stuff in the early war period from my reading, many of the corvettes we shipped over lacked many of the basic fittings as there was no money to buy them from the suppliers.

4.7 billion dollars worth is a lot of fittings.

[rmgill]

Nautical bits and parts get expensive. Never owned a boat I see.

Edited March 15, 2016 by rmgill