Economic and diplomatic effects of the Second World War in any two countries of the Americas

• Atomic Diplomacy - Countries threatening nuclear war to achieve their foreign policy goals - ONLY the U.S. at first

• Marshall Plan - $13 BILLION to help Europe recover - to aid containment goals

• Cold War Diplomacy - CONTAINMENT

• NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organization

• Bretton Woods - economic interdependence, the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, standardized currency exchange

• After the War: The private sector sees a MASSIVE increase investment in consumer goods (the humble toaster…)

• After the War: HUGE increases in demand for housing, cars, home goods

• After the War: HUGE drop off in government spending - WHY no depression postwar

• After the War: GI Bill paid for vets to go to college

• During the War The U.S. essentially had a command economy:

  • Price controls on various goods

  • Rationing!

  • Private companies with government contracts to produce military goods

  • ALL of it was financed through DEFICIT SPENDING

• CANADA: Macroeconomics

• CANADA: NATO

• CANADA: Relation w/ U.S.

• ICANADA: nternational Relations

  • Founding member of NATO

• CANADA: Hemispheric Relations

  • Much closer to the U.S. during and after the war

  • Work with the U.S. on the “DEW Line” - Distant Early Warning radar

  • Remember the Joint Permanent Board on Defense (1940) - economic coop with the U.S.

• CANADA: CD Howe (!)