"Between 1946 and 1952, Albert O. Hirschman, a German-born economist and wartime refugee, worked as an economic analyst in the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Board of the United States. He was first in charge of the Western European desk; later he was the Fed's representative to the...

This paper discusses the American debate over price controls and economic stabilization after World War II, when the transition from a war economy to a peace economy was characterized by bottlenecks in the productive system and shortages of food and other basic consumer goods, directly affecting...