The article presents information on the pricing of exports under the foreign assistance act of 1948. The ultimate objective underlying the plans for the re-establishment of economic stability in Europe, South America, and China will be lost if the U.S., in the course of making these great efforts, fails to maintain the essentials of a sound economy for itself. Strained and stressed as the economy already is from the transitions from wartime status to peacetime operation, two major factors now enter the picture, each one of which by itself can have a profound and decisive effect upon the course of economy. People are concerned here with that aspect of the problem of maintaining a sound economy which is affected by pricing policies, and in particular with the effect of certain cost concepts on pricing policies. Lest it be thought that this aspect is anything but a segment of the problem of maintaining a sound economy, it must be said that the answer lies in other directions for many phases of the problem. For example, where the productive capacity not only is insufficient to handle these new burdens but was proved to be insufficient to handle the needs of the last war.