ABSTRACT
Socialists have frequently debated the respective roles to be played by the plan and the market in their system. The wartime economic boom in the United States gradually liquidated the agricultural surpluses. The development of corporate agricultural organization and the application of industrial management techniques has also been a factor increasing agricultural efficiency. The United States entered World War II with huge inventories of various agricultural products that had been taken off the market to support agricultural prices at levels higher than the competitive market would allow. By the time of the New Deal, it became obvious that the market system was malfunctioning, and government planning was required for both agriculture and industry. Planning for industry took the form of the National Recovery Act (NRA), which was modeled after Mussolini's corporate state apparatus. In the case of industrial prices, firms are reluctant to reduce prices, fearing that this may set off a so-called "price war".
