It was certainly not flat. There was a lot of volatility.
> Not sure where you've read that it was
Well.. I looked at the charts. The bottom was few months after Pearl Harbor and pretty much straight up after that. It certainly did much better after US joined than while it was staying out..
IMO most of these appointments should be done by congress itself, the only reason they are done by the executive is because the role of president was a created on the template of the role of king.
except that without a "prime minister" now there is no separation between the "king" and the fulcrum of political power.
Of course this time its not dominated by industrial conglomerates which can retool their factories to manufacture military equipment.