Seventy years ago this day World War Two hadn't quite involved us officially (not as far as troops were concerned, but just about everything else) so there were still reports to be had from Berlin despite heavy censorship. The news concerned the German advance East, heading deep into Russia. While reports came in of Russian air raids over Germany from the east, and British air raids over Germany from the West. News from Berlin reported on crackdowns on the Black Market, widespread over Germany with numerous death sentences handed down. News from London reported no raids over the British Capitol in the last 24 hours and rationing for Baby clothes was announced.
In Washington, there was talk of a curtailment in "installment buying" to counter fears of inflation due to increased consumer spending. The Federal Reserve Board was working on a plan for the Reserve system to ration credit to prevent runaway business in installment buying and limit Credit agencies (i.e. banks and other lending institutions) from extending credit over a ceiling amount. Can you imagine how that would go over today?
And so it was seventy years ago to the day, on August 12, 1941 as reported by NBC Radio.
