The federal government emerged from the war as a potent economic actor, able to regulate economic activity and to partially control the economy through spending and consumption.
American industry was revitalized by the war, and many sectors were by 1945 either sharply oriented to defense production (for example, aerospace and electronics) or completely dependent on it (atomic energy).
The organized labor movement, strengthened by the war beyond even its depression-era height, became a major counterbalance to both the government and private industry.