Great Depression/New Deal Vocab 6.1-6.6

Speculation

practice of making high-risk investments in hopes of obtaining large profits.

Black Tuesday

when the stock market crashed on October 29, 1929 putting the economy in an economic tailspin and resulting in thousands of people losing entire fortunes in a matter of hours.

Great Depression

a period from 1929 -1941 in which the economy faltered and unemployment soared.

Hawley Smoot Tariff

was an act passed by Congress in 1930 which raised the prices on foreign imports causing European countries to retaliate and enact protective tariffs of their own resulting in a drastic decrease in world trade.

Hooverville

term used to describe makeshift shantytowns set up by homeless people during the great depression.

Dust Bowl

term used for the central and southern Great Plains during the 1930's, when the region suffered drought and dust storms.

localism

the belief and policy that problems could best be solved at local and state levels.

trickle-down economics

the theory that if the people who own businesses have more money they will hire more people and production and consumption would increase therefore ending the depression.

Bonus Army

many unemployed and homeless World War I veterans who marched on Washington D.C. in 1932 demanding changes and seeking their 1945 bonuses. After camping out for several days and holding demonstrations President Hoover ordered the vets to be forced out of the Capital.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

was elected President of the United States for four terms and served during the Great Depression, New Deal and World War II.

New Deal

were FDR's new programs that were based on the belief that the federal government needed to play an active role in promoting recovery and providing relief from the Great Depression.

FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation)

Insured bank deposits up to $5,000.

NRA (National Recovery Administration)

were codes established by Congress that set minimum wages for workers and set minimum prices for the goods that businesses sold.

CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps.)

a government program that provided over 2 millions jobs for young men. They replanted forests, built trails, dug irrigation ditches, and fought fires.

TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority)

was created as a way to aid rural southerners by controlling floods, generating electrical power and creating jobs.

PWA (Public Work Administration)

a government program that created millions of jobs sought to improve the nation's infrastructure by building bridges, dams, power plants and government buildings.

John Meynard Keynes

argued the opposite of trickle-down economics by saying that deficit spending was needed to end the depression and that putting people to work on public projects put money into the hands of consumers who would buy more goods, stimulating the economy.

Social Security Act

an act passed by Congress that created a pension system for retirees, provided unemployment insurance and also created insurance for the disabled.

Wagner Act

an act passed by congress which recognized the right of employees to join labor unions and the right of collective bargaining.

Fair Labor Standard Act

passed in 1938 it established a minimum wage.

sit down strike

when workers refuse to leave the workplace until a settlement is reached.

court packing

a strategy proposed by President FDR to place an additional 6 judges on the Supreme Court in order to get his New Deal legislation passed.

welfare state

a government that assumes responsibility for providing for the welfare of children, the poor, elderly, sick, disabled, and unemployed.