Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Cash and carry policy allowed belligerent countries to purchase non-military items if they paid cash immediately. This arrangement prohibited U.S. citizens from traveling on foreign ships and banned lending money to nations at war.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt announced the new policy during a joint session of Congress on the 21st of September 1939. The legislation lifted the ban on arms sales effectively ending the embargo since 1936.
Britain and France utilized their hard currency to pay for American goods immediately. These nations had both the money and the vessels required by the terms while Germany, Japan, and Italy lacked the necessary shipping capacity.
The Nye Committee asserted that U.S. involvement in World War I was driven by private interests from arms manufacturers. This conclusion led to the first Neutrality Act passed in August 1935 which forbade selling implements of war to belligerent countries under any terms.
On November 2, the House passed the Pittman Act by a vote of 243 to 181. The President gave his signature on November 4 and this Act continued the prohibition of making loans to belligerents.