-5- 



GENERAL MOTORS- CORNELL WEEKLY INDEXES OF 

 WHOLESALE PRICES OF ^4-0 BASIC COMMODITIES 



August 1939 rs 100 



expenditures has not yet been felt. The total funds provided for the 

 war progrrm up to mid-December v/ere approximately 7^ billion dollars, 

 but only slightly over 50 billion dollars of these funds were reoresent— 

 ed by obligations or contracts already let. The value of goods deliverec 

 or available for delivery was less than 20 billion dollars. This 

 indicates that there has been a very great lag in point of time and 

 amount of money between obliga.tions and the delivery of goods. 



The extent of our war effort is definitely limited by plant 

 capacity, skilled labor, and in some cases by availability of raw 

 material. If these bottle-neclis can be eliminated not only will 

 production for war ourposes greatly increase, but the income of the 

 American people will also tend to increa.se. ^t would appear, hov/ever, 

 that a large fraction of the Increase in the production of munitions 

 and other war materials will have to come at the expense of curtailment 

 in non-war goods. It is entirely possible that within the next yevT 

 or so the standard of living in terms of goods and services our chased 

 will be reduced to the level that existed in 1932. The cause for the 

 reduction will be quite different— this time, a lack of availability of 



