‘The Marshall Plan made it possible for West Germany to return quickly to its traditional pattern of industrial production with a strong export sector. Without the plan, agriculture would have played a larger role in the recovery period, which itself would have been longer. With respect to Austria, Günter Bischof has noted that "the Austrian economy, injected with an overabundance of European Recovery Program funds, produced "miracle" growth figures that matched and at times surpassed the German ones."’
Aid to Japan was similarly crucial and amounted to billions of dollars. These payments were separate from the Marshall Plan, which focused on Europe. Pre-war Japan was not a free market economy and subsequently underwent massive reform.
Honestly, I get that it’s cool to bash on the US (I am not American) but give credit where it’s due. US-led post-war reconstruction was of enormous and lasting significance.
A better explanation for the "German Miracle" was they turned to free markets.
As for Japan, the US occupation was advised by leftist professors, who deemed that big business was bad and small business was good. Japan remained prostrate under that policy. When it was changed to allow big business to operate again, Japan became a huge economic success story.
A big part of the "German Miracle" is that while Germany got less money than Britain or France they assumed they'd have to pay all of it back and when they didn't, that created a massive windfall that was used to provide affordable loans to businesses and reconstruction efforts. The "KfW" still exists as a public credit bank today - most younger people aren't aware its name literally expands to "credit institute for reconstruction" in German.
West Germany formally has a "social market economy" and while there have been pushes towards a "free market" economy those were largely the result of reforms from the 1980s onwards. I don't think "free markets" is a good explanation when looking at Germany vs Britain or France in the 1950s to 1970s.
My father, who was part of the military occupation force in Japan. He also was a professional historian and economist. The economy remained flat until big business was allowed to resume operation.
> I'm no expert, but the more common narrative is the Korean war was a stimulant for the Japanese economy.
People can't stand the idea that the free market works. :-/
‘The Marshall Plan made it possible for West Germany to return quickly to its traditional pattern of industrial production with a strong export sector. Without the plan, agriculture would have played a larger role in the recovery period, which itself would have been longer. With respect to Austria, Günter Bischof has noted that "the Austrian economy, injected with an overabundance of European Recovery Program funds, produced "miracle" growth figures that matched and at times surpassed the German ones."’
Aid to Japan was similarly crucial and amounted to billions of dollars. These payments were separate from the Marshall Plan, which focused on Europe. Pre-war Japan was not a free market economy and subsequently underwent massive reform.
Honestly, I get that it’s cool to bash on the US (I am not American) but give credit where it’s due. US-led post-war reconstruction was of enormous and lasting significance.