sethnintendo said:
Ford and GM had factories in Germany that were cranking out weapons, vehicles, etc... for the Germans during WW2 and that they even got reimbursed for the damages to the factories due to bombing. "General Motors produced vast quantities of armaments, vehicles, and aircraft during World War II. Its multinational interests were split up by the combating powers during the war such that the American, Canadian and British parts of the corporation served the Allied war effort and Adam Opel AG served the Axis war effort. By the spring of 1939, the German Government had assumed day-to-day control of American owned factories in Germany, but decided against nationalizing them completely (seizing the assets and capital). Soon after the war broke out, the nationalization came.[11] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_General_Motors
"President Franklin Roosevelt referred to Detroit as the "Arsenal of Democracy."[21][22] The Ford Motor Company played a pivotal role in the allied victory during World War I and World War II. As a pacifist, Henry Ford had said war was a waste of time, and did not want to profit from it.[12][23] He was concerned the Nazis during the 1930s might nationalize Ford factories in Germany. Those were tense times for American companies doing business in Europe. Ford established a close collaboration with Germany's Nazi government before the war—so close, in fact, that Henry Ford received, in July 1938, the Grand Cross of the German Eagle medal from the Nazi government. In the spring of 1939, the Nazi government assumed day to day control of Ford factories in Germany. However, Ford's Dearborn headquarters continued to maintain 52% ownership over the factories, since Germany did not seize ownership through nationalization. Ford factories contributed significantly to the buildup of Germany's armed forces. Ford negotiated a resource-sharing agreement that allowed the German military to access scarce supplies, particularly rubber. During this same period, Ford was hesitant to participate in the Allied military effort. In June 1940, after France had fallen to the Wehrmacht, Henry Ford personally vetoed a plan to build airplane engines for the Allies.[24] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ford_Motor_Company
Sorry about the wall of text but I thought it was pretty interesting. Anyways, the main reason why I am replying is because I wanted to know when you considered the Great Depression over. It is stated in many places that the Great Depression went from 29-41. So it pretty much ended right around the time USA declared war. |
The part you missed.
"Soon after the war broke out, the nationalization came.[11]"
Hence why everything else after it is listed as "Dubious discuss"
And again, the US declared war in December of 1941.
The US was out of recession before then and doing a higher clip of GDP improvement then when actually in the war.
American mobilization didn't really even have any huge effect until mid to late 1942 because they didn't have the right things in place to force private companies to go along till then.... to look at the GDP.
1941 (Not in the war 11 out of 12 months/just sellign weapons) - 19% increase
1942 (In the war but not mobilizing for it well until towards the end) - 15.24% increase
1943 (war production at it's height) - -1.88%
1944 (Allies winning the war, military production scaled back some) - 28%
Then after a few hiccups in postwar conversion, the economy kept doing better as government spending was GREATLY scaled back.
I find it odd that so many contemporary liberals are willing to say that the defense deficit spending... yet blame the Bush defesne deficit spending for the problem we're in now and see the Bush wars as a negative to the economy.
Of course, i'd say that's when the economy "techninically" recovered, since living during WW2 was no picnic. The Depression didn't end till the mid to late 1940's for the regular people.