p. 22
“

In furtherance of the war effort, the WIB centralized the economic life of America into a highly structured bureaucracy under the effective direction and control of leading business interests. Matters relating to the production, pricing, and allocation of strategic goods and services were handled not by the impersonal forces of the marketplace, but by the quite personal direction of businessmen armed with governmental authority. American industry had, in short, become ‘mobilized’ in the most literal, military sense of the word. Depending upon how one viewed the practice, American businesses found themselves subject to political ‘coordination’ or ‘regimentation’ in furtherance of collective goals.

— Butler D. Shaffer

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "In furtherance of the war effort, the WIB centralized the economic life of America into a highly structured bureaucracy under the effective direction and control of leading business interests. Matters relating to the production, pricing, and allocation of strategic goods and services were handled not by the impersonal forces of the marketplace, but by the quite personal direction of businessmen armed with governmental authority. American industry had, in short, become ‘mobilized’ in the most literal, military sense of the word. Depending upon how one viewed the practice, American businesses found themselves subject to political ‘coordination’ or ‘regimentation’ in furtherance of collective goals." in the context of "p. 22" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Butler D. Shaffer" (In Restraint of Trade: The Business Campaign Against Competition, 1918-1938 (1997): Auburn, Alabama, Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2008) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Butler D. Shaffer

About Butler D. Shaffer

Butler D. Shaffer (January 12, 1935 – December 29, 2019) was an American author, law professor and speaker, known for his numerous libertarian books and blog articles for LewRockwell.com.