THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND THE NEW DEAL

Origins of the Great Depression:

1.              U.S. Business Fundamentally Flawed

a.     Overproduction/underconsumption

b.     Stock market speculation                         

                                    c. Run on the Banks               

                        2. Farm Depression

                                    The Dust Bowl

                        3. Worldwide depression

                        4. Bad Policy:

a. Hawley-Smoot Tariff

b. Agricultural Marketing Act:

            c. National Credit Corporation:

d. Reconstruction Finance Corporation:

e. Presidential Organization for

Unemployment Relief (POUR)

f. Bonus March

THE NEW DEAL

I. The Election of 1932:

Herbert Hoover vs. Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Hoover: “General prosperity had been a great ally

in the election of 1928. Great Depression was a major enemy in 1932.”

“Herbert Roosevelt and Franklin Hoover”

      --one columnist’s opinion of the two candidates

Campaign Song for FDR:

“Happy Days are Here Again.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqsT4xnKZPg

Bonus Army: “Hoover sent the army. Roosevelt

sent his wife.”

         FDR: “Above all, be sure there is plenty of

good coffee. No questions asked. Just let free coffee flow all the time.”

Electoral Vote: 472 to 59

Inauguration: March 4, 1933

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX_v0zxM23Q&feature=related

II. THE NEW DEAL

“Brain Trust”

     --FDR’s trusted advisers

--politicians and professors

First Hundred Days:

     March 9 to June 16, 1933

Will Rogers:

“Congress does pass legislation—they just wave at the bills as they go by.”

John Maynard Keynes(1883 to 1946):

     Keynesian Economics

--unemployment leads to money hoarding

 --govt. must expand money supply

--short term but massive government spending

          Nixon: "We are all Keynesians now."

POLICIES OF THE NEW DEAL

--RELIEF, RECOVERY, REFORM--

A. RELIEF:

 1. work relief:

1935--1943

WPA --employed 8.5 million americans

--spent $10.5 billion

--constructed 651,087 miles of roads

--125,110 public buildings

--8192 parks

--853 airports

-- built or repaired 124,087 bridges

                  

2. direct assistance

B. RECOVERY:

1. industry:

2. agriculture:

C. REFORM:

1. Social Security Act:

        2. Emergency Banking Act:

Was the New Deal Successful?

III. OTHER RESPONSES TO THE DEPRESSION:

A. Cultural Responses

B. Political Responses from the Left:

       1. Huey Long, "Share Our Wealth

 2. Dr. Townsend, "Old Age Revolving Pension"              3. Father Coughlin, "Social Justice"

C. Political Responses from the Right:

              1. Father Coughlin turns Right          

              2. William Dudley Pelly's "Silver Shirts"

IV. SIGNIFICANCE:

   A. desperate times require desperate policy

   B. changing expectation of govt. involvement