Central planning, in economics, is the idea that big government bureaucrats are better than private individuals at choosing what to produce and how much to sell it for. The prosperous industrialized nations of the democratic West generally believe in the free market principle whereby no transaction is made unless both buyer and seller feel that they benefit.
In his 1932 book A Planned Society, George Henry Soule Jr. argues that the World War 1 era War Industries Board is a model for planning.[1][2]