The Great Depression & The New Deal
1929-1939
Causes & Effects of the Depression, 1929-1933
- On Black Thursday, October 24, 1929, there was an unprecedented volume of selling on wall street, and stock prices plunged. & Black Tuesday, October 29, the bottom fell out, as millions of panicky investors ordered their brokers to sell, when there were practically no buyers to be found.
- Wages had risen relatively little compared to the large increases in productivity and corporate profits.
- The U.S. Gross National Product, the value of all the goods and services produced by the nation in one year, dropped from $104 billion to $56 billion in four years.
The Great Depression: Crash Course US History #33
Hoover's Policies
- Hawley-Smoot Tariff (1930) by the Republican Congress set tax increases ranging from 31 percent to 49 percent
- Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) would help stabilize these key businesses and ultimately bring recovery.
- By 1932 millions of unemployed workers were in a state bordering desperation.
- The republicans renominated Hoover, who warned a democratic victory would only result in worse economic problems
Robert Higgs on Hoover's Great Depression Policies
Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal
- More than any other president Franklin D. Roosevelt panded the size of the federal government, altered its scope of operations,a nd greatly enlarged the powers of the presidency.
- Roosevelt was paralyzed by polio
- The 3 R's : relief for people out of work, recovery for business and the economy as a whole, and reform of American economic institutions.
- The CWA was added to the PWA and other new deals
The New Deal: Crash Course US History #34
The Second New Deal
- Resettlement Administration provided loans to sharecroppers, tenants, and small farmers
- REA provided loans for electrical cooperatives to supply power in rural areas.
- The Social Securit Act created a federal insurance program based on the automatic collection of taxes from both employees and employers.
- Roosevelt swamped Landon, winning every state but Maine & Vermont.
FDR & Second New Deal Part 2