National Economic Planning

Report Outline
Dustry
Advance Planning by Individual Concerns and Industries
Suggested National Plans for the United States
American Experience with Planning in Emergencies
Special Focus

Dustry

The periodic recurrence of business depressions in all industrial countries, the long duration and all-inclusive character of the current depression, and the virtual certainty of others to come in future years unless preventive measures are taken in advance, have led to wide discussion among business men and economists of the causes of major slumps in business and of methods that may be developed to keep future economic activity on a more even keel.

While wide divergence characterizes the explanations offered for the 1930–31 depression, there is a growing emphasis in many quarters upon the need for economic, planning on a national scale as a means of avoiding or mitigating future slumps. The successful experience with advance planning of particular plants and industries and the war-time achievements of the War Industries Board are stressed by those now advocating various schemes of economic planning for the United States.

Proposals for central planning in this country under the guidance of an economic general staff or a national economic council or both direct attention to the existence and activities of similar bodies in certain countries of Europe, notably Russia, Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, and Czechoslovakia. Although these foreign councils are too recent in origin and have been too handicapped by post-war political problems to have achieved many noteworthy results, except in the case of Russia, their organization and functions have comparative value in considering the various plans advanced for the United States.