The efficacy of Department of Defense policies and actions in lessening the United States international balance of payments problem

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to penult a determination of whether actions taken by the Department of Defense can hope materially to alleviate the serious international balance of payments problem which the United States faces. In order to do this it was necessary, first, to study briefly the substance of what the balance of payments problem is, combined with the interrelated gold flow problem, and then, to analyze the broad spectrum of actions which the Department of Defense has taken and plans to take in the future. In making the study, the author found the advice and assistance of various individuals in the Balance of Payments Division, Budget Directorate, Department of Defense, and in the Office of Business iSconomics, Department of Commerce, to be invaluable. Also, many statistics compiled by these two offices were fundamental to this study, but the use of a fiscal year by the Department of Defense versus the use of a calendar year by the Department of Commerce caused problems of reconciliation which were sometimes insurmountable. Different categorisations and combinations of items contributing to the balance of payments also caused some difficult problems of analysis.