<P> The economy in America was now beginning to show signs of recovery and the unemployment rate was lowering following the abysmal year of 1938 . The biggest shift towards recovery, however, came with the decision of Germany to invade France at the beginning of WWII . After France had been defeated, the U.S. economy would skyrocket in the months following . France's defeat meant that Britain and other allies would look to the U.S. for large supplies of materials for the war . </P> <P> The need for these war materials created a huge spurt in production, thus leading to promising amount of employment in America . Moreover, Britain chose to pay for their materials in gold . This stimulated the gold inflow and raised the monetary base, which in turn, stimulated the American economy to its highest point since the summer of 1929 when the depression began . </P> <P> By the end of 1941, before American entry into the war, defense spending and military mobilization had started one of the greatest booms in American history thus ending the last traces of unemployment . </P> <Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> Fireside Chat 1 On the Banking Crisis Roosevelt's first Fireside Chat on the Banking Crisis (March 12, 1933) </Td> </Tr> </Table>

What helped the us out of the great depression