U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945; served 1933–45) had two major home front financial concerns during World War II (1939–45): how to finance the very expensive war effort and how to control the greatly altered home front economy. Solutions for both problems were intertwined. During World War I (1914–18) prices of goods and services in the United States had risen 62 percent, causing much economic hardship on the U.S. home front. Roosevelt was determined to avoid such dramatic inflation (prices of goods rising faster than wages) during World War II. This meant making major changes to the U.S. economy during the war years. Under Roosevelt's direction, the economy changed from a peacetime free market economy—an economic system with very limited government control over business activities, whereby the price of goods is primarily determined by the public demand and availability...