Great Depression/New Deal
Glass Steagall Act
(Banking Act of 1933) - Established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and included banking reforms, some designed to control speculation. Repealed in 1999, opening the door to scandals involving banks and stock investment companies.
Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)
(FDR) 1933 and 1938 , Helped farmers meet mortgages. Unconstitutional because the government was paying the farmers to waste 1/3 of there products. Created by Congress in 1933 as part of the New Deal this agency attempted to restrict agricultural production by paying farmers subsidies to take land out of production.
Bonus Army
1932 - Facing the financial crisis of the Depression, WW I veterans tried to pressure Congress to pay them their retirement bonuses early. Congress considered a bill authorizing immediate assurance of $2.4 billion, but it was not approved. Angry veterans marched on Washington, D.C., and Hoover called in the army to get the veterans out of there.
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
1934 - Created to supervise stock exchanges and to punish fraud in securities trading.
Wagner Act
1935; established National Labor Relations Board; protected the rights of most workers in the private sector to organize labor unions, to engage in collective bargaining, and to take part in strikes and other forms of concerted activity in support of their demands.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
32nd US President - He began New Deal programs to help the nation out of the Great Depression, and he was the nation's leader during most of WWII
National Recovery Act (NRA)
A New Deal legislation that focused on the employment of the unemployed and the regulation of unfair business ethics. The NIRA pumped cash into the economy to stimulate the job market and created codes that businesses were to follow to maintain the ideal of fair competition and created the NRA.
Emergency Banking Act
A government legislation passed during the depression that dealt with the bank problem. The act allowed a plan which would close down insolvent banks and reorganize and reopen those banks strong enough to survive.
Smoot-Hawley Tariff
A high tariff enacted in 1930 during the Great Depression. By taxing imported goods, Congress hoped to stimulate American manufacturing, but the tariff triggered retaliatory tariffs in other countries, which further hindered global trade and led to greater economic contraction.
Roosevelt Recession
A recession from 1937 to 1938 that occurred after President Roosevelt cut the federal budget.
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
A relief, recovery, and reform effort that gave 2.5 million poor citizens jobs and land. It brought cheap electric power, low-cost housing, cheap nitrates, and the restoration of eroded soil.
Francis Townsend
A retired physician who proposed an Old Age Revolving Pension Plan to give every retiree over age 60 $200 per month (using money from a 2% federal sales tax), provided that the person spend the money each month in order to receive their next payment; the object of Towsend's plan was to help retired workers as well as stimulate spending in order to boost production and end the Depression.
Huey Long
As senator in 1932 of Washington preached his "Share Our Wealth" programs. It was a 100% tax on all annual incomes over $1 million and appropriation of all fortunes in excess of $5 million. With this money Long proposed to give every American family a comfortable income, etc
Court Packing Plan
Because the Supreme Court was striking down New Deal legislation, Roosevelt decided to curb the power of the Court by proposing a bill to allow the president to name a new federal judge for each who did not retire by age 70 and 1/2. At the time, 6 justices were over the age limit. Would have increased the number of justices from 9 to 15, giving FDR a majority of his own appointees on the court. The court-packing bill was not passed by Congress.
Reconstruction Finance Corporation
Congress set up $2 billion. It made loans to major economic institutions such as banks, insurance companies and railroads.
Civil Works Administration (CWA)
Men and women paid by federal government to do public projects
Works Progress Administration (WPA)
New Deal agency that helped create jobs for those that needed them. It created around 9 million jobs working on bridges, roads, and buildings.
Dust Bowl
Region of the Great Plains that experienced a drought in 1930 lasting for a decade, leaving many farmers without work or substantial wages.
Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)
The Act was the first direct-relief operation under the New Deal and was headed by Harry L. Hopkins, a New York social worker who was one of Franklin D. Roosevelt's most influential advisers. The law provided money for food and other necessities for the unemployed. Affected the people in trying to aid people feeling the effects of the depression.
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1936. It responded to needs for relief, reform, and recovery from the Great Depression. Major federal programs included the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the Civil Works Administration (CWA), the Farm Security Administration (FSA), the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 (NIRA) and the Social Security Administration (SSA). They provided support for farmers, the unemployed, youth and the elderly. The New Deal included new constraints and safeguards on the banking industry and efforts to re-inflate the economy after prices had fallen sharply. New Deal programs included both laws passed by Congress as well as presidential executive orders during the first term of the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Herbert Hoover
The economy continued to worsen, with unemployment rates nearing 23 percent in early 1932, and Hoover finally heeded calls for more direct federal intervention. In January 1932, he convinced Congress to authorize the establishment of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC), which would provide government-secured loans to financial institutions, railroads, and local governments. The RFC saved numerous businesses from failure, but it failed to stimulate commercial lending as much as Hoover had hoped, partly because it was run by conservative bankers unwilling to make riskier loans. The same month the RFC was established, Hoover signed the Federal Home Loan Bank Act, establishing 12 district banks overseen by a Federal Home Loan Bank Board in a manner similar to the Federal Reserve System. He also helped arrange passage of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1932, emergency banking legislation designed to expand banking credit by expanding the collateral on which Federal Reserve banks were authorized to lend. As these measures failed to stem the economic crisis, Hoover signed the Emergency Relief and Construction Act, a $2 billion public works bill, in July 1932.
Fireside Chats
The informal radio conversations Roosevelt had with the people to keep spirits up. It was a means of communicating with the people on how he would take on the depression.
Keynesian Economics
Theory based on the principles of John Maynard Keynes, stating that government spending should increase during business slumps and be curbed during booms.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
an agency created in 1933 to insure individuals' bank accounts, protecting people against losses due to bank failures
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
an agency, established as part of the New Deal, that put young unemployed men to work building roads, developing parks, planting trees, and helping in erosion-control and flood-control projects.
Social Security Act
guaranteed retirement payments for enrolled workers beginning at age 65; set up federal-state system of unemployment insurance and care for dependent mothers and children, the handicapped, and public health
Indian Reorganization Act 1934
halted sale of tribal lands, enabled tribes to regain unallocated lands; repealed Dawes Severalty Act of 1887; helped secure Indians' entry into New Deal associations; led by John Collier
Deficit Spending
situation in which a government spends more money than it takes in
Hundred Days
the special session of Congress that Roosevelt called to launch his New Deal programs. The special session lasted about three months: 100 days.