International Emergency Economic Powers Act

“ Inflation: We have included in the economic section some of the statutes designed to prevent or alleviate wartime inflation. Enacted within months after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, the Emergency Price Control Act of 1942 was designed to prevent economic dislocations from endangering the national defense and security and the effective prosecution of the war. ”

“ Price Control: In time of war the capitalist economy is transformed into a closely administered economy regulated in an effort to maximize war production and minimize dislocation of the civilian economy. To prevent speculation and dissipation of tax and consumer dollars through continuous and unchecked price increases, it becomes necessary [66] that prices be subjected to government control. This was the aim of the Emergency Price Control Act of 1942. ”

“ The Proclamation of May 27, 1941, in which President Roosevelt declared the existence of an unlimited emergency caused by the supposed expanded war aims of the Axis powers, carefully translated the emergency into economic terms. The President advised businessmen that in maximizing war production they would be protecting a world in which free enterprise could exist; and workingmen, in so doing, would protect a society in which labor and management could bargain on free and equal terms. ”

“ In view of the continuing rise of confirmed cases of COVID-19, the serious threat to the health, safety, security, and lives of our countrymen, the long-term adverse effects on their means of livelihood, and the severe disruption of economic activities, a state of national emergency is hereby declared over the entire country. ”

“ Providing Emergency Disaster Relief Actively responding to the calls of the international community, China provided emergency humanitarian aid, including relief materials, rescue teams, and funds, to Indonesia, Mexico, Chile, the Solomon Islands, the Bahamas, El Salvador and other countries that had been struck by earthquakes, hurricanes or other devastating natural disasters. ”

“ More resilient supply chains are secure and diverse—facilitating greater domestic production, a range of supply, built-in redundancies, adequate stockpiles, safe and secure digital networks, and a world-class American manufacturing base and workforce. Moreover, close cooperation on resilient supply chains with allies and partners who share our values will foster collective economic and national security and strengthen the capacity to respond to international disasters and emergencies. ”

“ By reference to particular statutes and specific instances this volume affords a graphic picture of the broad extent to which emergency power has been employed by the United States government in recent years. Many will view this development with alarm for the many instances of its use make a lengthy list. Military emergency today is but one type of national emergency. Catastrophes and economic emergencies may also require the exercise of this type of power. ”

“ The government implemented austerity measures, declared emergency measures to guard against a potential banking crisis resulting from the country's economic slowdown, and is seeking international assistance to fund a peace plan with the guerrillas. Guerrilla violence and low world oil prices will likely continue to undermine the economy in 1999. ”

“ Agencies, including executive departments, should take all appropriate steps to use their lawful emergency authorities and other authorities to respond to the national emergency and to facilitate the Nation’s economic recovery. As set forth in this order, agencies should take all reasonable measures to speed infrastructure investments and to speed other actions in addition to such investments that will strengthen the economy and return Americans to work, while providing appropriate protection for public health and safety, natural resources, and the environment, as required by law. ”

“ China calls on multilateral organizations including the UN, the WHO, the IMF and the World Bank to provide emergency aid to African countries, and calls on developed countries to take on more responsibilities, to play a bigger role in the global battle, and to provide more material, technological and personnel support to their developing counterparts, especially those in Africa. ”

“ Prices increase. The common defense requires immediate purchase of supplies. The public treasury is exhausted. The government borrows from money lenders (bankers) . It also prints paper money and puts it in circulation.
If the credit of the government is good, if the emergency is of short duration, matters right themselves and the economy survives without serious derangements. But war-emergency disrupts and sometimes destroys an economy. This outcome often results from military defeat. ”

“ Section 1. Policy. The United States needs resilient, diverse, and secure supply chains to ensure our economic prosperity and national security. Pandemics and other biological threats, cyber-attacks, climate shocks and extreme weather events, terrorist attacks, geopolitical and economic competition, and other conditions can reduce critical manufacturing capacity and the availability and integrity of critical goods, products, and services. ”

“ The spread lies between a liquid sugar or codfish emergency and an emergency caused by the global military and ideological activities of the communist movement. The citizen of the democratic state, having weathered depression, natural disaster, agricultural, defense and war emergencies, and recognizing that by popular consensus he lives in a time of cold war emergency which may turn into a war emergency, or if lessened, may create an emergency by virtue of the threat to continued prosperity resulting from curbed defense orders, is entitled to be apprehensive. ”

“ The factors contributing to the national emergency included “speculative, unwarranted, and abnormal increases in prices and rents; ... profiteering, hoarding, manipulation, speculation, and other disruptive practices.” The war effort would be aided through insuring that defense appropriations were not dissipated by excessive prices; by protecting persons with relatively fixed and limited incomes, consumers, wage earners, investors, and persons dependent on life insurance, annuities, and pensions, from undue impairment of their standard of living through skyrocketing [19] prices. ”

“ As regards other industries, protection by means of customs duties or Government assistance in other forms should be afforded only to carefully selected branches of industry, which must be maintained either for reasons of national safety or on the general ground that it is undesirable that any industry of real importance to our economic strength and well-being should be allowed to be weakened by foreign competition or brought to any serious extent under alien domination or control. ”

“ The general welfare, and military effectiveness of a modern industrial nation depend upon the harmonious interaction of a complex, interdependent network of production and transportation facilities. The interruption of this process at any of a myriad of critical points can disrupt the supply of essential civilian and military materials, possibly undermining the economic health or military security of the nation. ”

“ The lessons of history are clear: market economies, not command-and-control economies with the heavy hand of government, are the best way to promote prosperity and reduce poverty. Policies that further strengthen market incentives and market institutions are relevant for all economies—industrialized countries, emerging markets, and the developing world.
A return to strong economic growth in Europe and Japan is vital to U.S. national security interests. We want our allies to have strong economies for their own sake, for the sake of the global economy, and for the sake of global security. ”

“ These emergencies have included not only natural disasters and threats to the national defense, but also threats to human and animal health, energy security, agriculture and farmers, and employment and economic prosperity. ”

“ Upon the policy adopted for this emergency will doubtless depend in large measure the whole future of economic internationalism. For not only does confidence grow with effective coöperation, but upon this post-war coöperation between nations for an emergency commerce and finance, or its rejection, will depend not only America's future place in a world society but the structure of that world society in its essential character. ”

“ Certain national infrastructures are so vital that their incapacity or destruction would have a debilitating impact on the defense or economic security of the United States. These critical infrastructures include telecommunications, electrical power systems, gas and oil storage and transportation, banking and finance, transportation, water supply systems, emergency services (including medical, police, fire, and rescue) , and continuity of government. ”