DEVELOPMENT OF THE US SECURITIES MARKET IN THE 1940-S: THE ROAD TO FINANCIAL LEADERSHIP

The Second World War radically changed not only political, but also financial landscape of the world. After the War ended the United States became the main source of capital. The American financial market and the stock market determined all the trends in the credit and financial sphere of other countries. In the 1930-s the US economy (and the stock market) were stagnant during the ?Great Depression?. Industry began activating when the war intensified government military orders, and the stock market began reviving after the emission of bonds of military loans. When the war was over the United States funded the postwar recovery in Japan, Germany and other Western European countries. By the Bretton Woods conference in 1944 the dollar has become a major international currency, and it was a financial basis for US influence in the second half of the twentieth century, often called Pax Americana, that is ?American world?.