The Great Depression & New Deal

stock market

a system of buying and selling shares (pieces) of companies; helps companies get the money they need to operate; offers investors a chance to make money

speculation

investing money at great risk with the anticipation that prices (in the stock market) will rise; contributed to the stock market crash

buy on margin

borrowing money from a broker (a person that sells stock) to buy stock

Black Tuesday

October 29, 1929, when stock market prices took the steepest dive; stocks lost $10-$15 billion in value

economic depression

a sustained, long-term downturn in economic activity; characterized by high unemployment, home foreclosures and business failures

bank failures

when a bank is unable to meet its obligations due to lack of money to refund deposits; depositors/customers lost their savings

Hooverville

nickname given to shantytowns in the United States during Great Depression; homeless camps

soup kitchen/breadline

appeared during the Great Depression to help feed poor and unemployed people; run by organizations such as the Salvation Army or churches

Dust Bowl

an arid/dry region of the southern Great Plains (Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas) where a combination of drought and poor farming practices created enormous dust storms in the 1930s

New Deal

the name given to programs and federal legislation signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression to promote economic recovery and social reform

fireside chats

informal radio broadcasts given by Franklin D. Roosevelt to explain issues and New Deal programs to Americans

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)

government agency created to insure bank deposits guaranteeing people's money would be safe; helped restore confidence in banks

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

government agency created to regulate the operations of the stock market to make it a safe place for investments; wanted to avoid a future crash

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

New Deal program that created forestry jobs for young men

National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA)

federal law that developed codes of fair competition for industries and established minimum wages for workers and minimum prices for goods that businesses sold

National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act)

federal law that recognized the right of employees to join labor unions and allowed collective bargaining to negotiate hours, wages, and other working conditions; protected American workers

Social Security Act

federal law that established a pension system for retirees, unemployment insurance for workers who lost their jobs, insurance for victims of work-related accidents, and provided aid for poverty-stricken mothers & children, the blind and disabled