Group 3
Cynthia Meas
Schelley Hess
Randy Jouben
Arturo Mendoza
Excelsior College Students
Table of Contents
Introduction 3
Literature Review 4
Findings 5
Conclusion and Recommendations 13
References 14
Introduction
War and economy how do they intertwine with each other? First, there has to be a conflict for a war to start. Conflicts come in many forms but one area we are looking into is international conflict. International conflict creates disagreements, which can lead to a war. In turn, creates an economy that turns itself around. Looking at how the economy prospered during World War II, World on Terror, and the Cold War. Prior to each conflict, the United States was in a recession and it needed to be turned around. Looking at WW II where the United States was in a major recession prior to the war. This was the biggest recession in our history. Then, moving on to the Cold War, where military was boosted to keep the communist out of our country. Looking at each of these wars and how they boosted or hindered the economy as a whole.
Literature Review
Several interesting articles on history and economics were identified in researching World War II economics. The textbook references some articles on World War II, to include the general theories of employment interest and money, as mentioned in (about economics). It was interesting to explore how the Keysnian economics was initiated from the World War II era. Conversion, mitigation, and reconversion are also notable concepts that came from the economic effects of World War II.
In contrast to the information on World War II, much of the literature on the current War on Terror is still being written as this conflict is just over a decade old. World War II resources are also filtered through a shared American experience where the entire resources of a nation where focused on liberating the world from Nazi oppression whereas the War on Terror is seen more through a partisan microscope where the mission and benefit is not as clear. Although the Keysnian economic theory was tested within the Petri dish of World War II, no one prevailing economic theory has emerge to explore the effect of the cost of the War on Terror and the recession of 2007.
Findings
For the United States, World War II and the Great Depression constituted the most important economic event of the twentieth century. The war's effects were varied and far-reaching. The war decisively ended the depression itself. The federal government emerged from the war as a potent economic factor, able to regulate economic activity, and to partially control the economy through spending and consumption. American industry was revitalized by the war, and many sectors were by 1945 either sharply oriented, to defense production (for example, aerospace and electronics) or completely dependent on it (atomic energy). The organized labor movement, strengthened by the war beyond even its depression-era height, became a major counterbalance to both the government and private industry. The war's rapid scientific and technological changes continued and intensified trends begun during the Great Depression and created a permanent expectation of continued innovation on the part of many scientists, engineers, government officials and citizens. Similarly, the substantial increases in personal income and frequently, if not always, in quality of life during the war led many