Trump has invoked the Defence Production Act ,a federal law that was enacted in 1950,under the Truman adminisration, in response to the start of the Korean War.Pub. L. 81-774
AN ACT To establish a system of priorities and allocations for materials and facilities, authorize the requisitioning thereof, provide financial assistance for expansion of productive capacity and supply, provide for price and wage stabilization, provide for the settlement of. labor disputes, strengthen controls over credit, and by these measures facilitate the production of goods and services necessary for the national security, and for other purposesThe Act contains three major sections:
The first authorizes the President to require businesses to sign contracts or fulfill orders deemed necessary for national defense. It also allows the president to designate materials to be prohibited from hoarding or price-gouging.
The second section authorizes the President to establish mechanisms (such as regulations, orders or agencies) to allocate materials, services and facilities to promote national defense.
The third section authorizes the President to control the civilian economy so that scarce and/or critical materials necessary to the national defense effort are available for defense needs.
The Act also authorizes the President to requisition property, force industry to expand production and the supply of basic resources, impose wage and price controls, settle labor disputes, control consumer and real estate credit, establish contractual priorities, and allocate raw materials towards national defense.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_Production_Act_of_1950
I suspect we for all intents and purposes we are seeing the beginning of the new Cold War and if that is the case ,we will be seeing civlian resources diverted to the US military industrial complex.
The historical precedent for this:" When North Korea invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950, President Harry S. Truman attempted to use the NSRB(National Security Resources Board) as the nation's mobilization agency. Truman quadrupled the defense budget to $50 billion, and the NSRB placed controls on prices, wages and raw materials. Inflation soared and shortages in food, consumer goods and housing appeared. By October 1950, inflation had abated and shortages were easing.
The intervention of China in the Korean War unraveled the administration's mobilization effort.
A panicked public began hoarding and the administration accelerated its rearmament plans. Inflation jumped from 1.3 percent to 7.9 percent.
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.........President Truman declared a national emergency on December 16, 1950. Using the powers granted to him by the Defense Production Act (which had been enacted only in September 1950), Truman created the Office of Defense Mobilization (ODM).
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Charles E. Wilson, president of General Electric and a government mobilization chief in World War II, the head of the ODM took control of the economy. All raw materials were under the control of ODM, which rationed them to the civilian economy. Production quotas were set, and businesses ordered to supply the government with goods and services. Companies which failed to meet their production quotas were threatened with seizure by ODM. Companies found to be secretly diverting raw materials to civilian uses were severely punished through the withdrawal of lucrative government contracts, fines, and the imposition of government supervisors on-site at the workplace.
Defense plants, concentrated at the time near existing manufacturing centers and where electrical power was plentiful, were dispersed across the Southeast and Deep South. The government restricted investment in new plant equipment so that only investments meeting national security needs were made. Additionally, ODM invested millions of dollars in new plant and equipment to rapidly expand production capacity. Strict price controls were placed on all goods and services, and wages were subject to federal government approval and control. Black marketeers were severely punished with fines and jail sentences.
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In August 1951, additional controls were placed on the economy. Any manufacturer seeking raw materials had to first obtain a permit from ODM before purchasing such materials. ODM also began to control the use of steel for building and automobile production, even significantly restricting the building of public schools to divert additional steel to national defense needs."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Defense_Mobilization
