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SW “Ohia” |
I listen to audiobooks during my daily commute and recently finished “My Years with General Motors” by Alfred P. Sloan, GM’s president/chairman from 1923-1956. Amongst a variety of interesting topics, he spent a great deal of time discussing the post-WW2 economy and how it was plagued by shortages/price inflation.
In his words, GM didn’t officially return to “normal” until 1952. Pent up demand from the war time outpaced anything they could do regarding supply. Dealerships were selling cars for extremely large markups, which reflected poorly on GM’s corporate image. Parts and raw materials remained difficult to get on schedule or at the needed quantities for almost five years after the war. Prices could not be guaranteed and suppliers refused to put much effort forward in controlling these production issues. GM was able to retool their factories back to consumer products relatively quickly but that meant little when they couldn’t build any cars. Getting their R&D/engineering divisions focused back on the automobile world also took time. Labor demands for pay increases which has been held back during the war led to strife, and the job market was tight; every company was trying to expand to meet demand.
He also discussed the particulars of rebuilding their German subsidiary Opel which had been seized by the German government, but that’s digressing.
I think it’s an interesting bit of history when used at context for the current ongoing supply chain situation. It takes a long time for supply and demand to balance out after a situation like WW2 or Covid, longer than many people would think. I wouldn’t not be surprised to still see hiccups in various things for another 2 years.
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Inflation, Shortages, etc Experiences from the Post-WW2 Economy
