Great Depression Vocabulary

Installment Buying

Buying products using credit

Buying On Margin

Borrowing money in order to buy stocks

Stocks

A portion of a corporation giving the holder a share of ownership in a business

Stock Market Crash

October 29, 1929; stock values plummeted as many tried to sell their stock quickly

Overproduction

Situation in which the supply of manufactured goods exceeds the demand

Bankruptcy

Financial failure caused by a company's, or a person's, inability to pay its debts

Default

Failure to repay a loan

Hooverville

Name given to shack cities that arose as many began to experience homelessness during the Depression

Bonus Army

World War I veterans attacked by the government when requesting their war bonus early

New Deal

Roosevelt's plan to improve the economy during the Depression

Fireside Chat

Radio talks by Roosevelt, designed to inspire and inform the American people

Tva

Tennessee Valley Authority; agency that built dams along the Tennessee River to generate economic growth

Fdic

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; protects individual bank deposits in the event of a financial disaster

Pension

Retirement payments to older Americans or those determined to be disabled

Eleanor Roosevelt

Activist First Lady who served as her husband's eyes and ears during the Depression

Black Cabinet

Group of high-ranking appointees who advised the President of African-American affairs

Mary McLeod Bethune

Appointed by the President, she was the highest-ranking African-American in Roosevelt's cabinet

Migrants

People who traveled from farm to farm picking crops

Dust Bowl

Term for the destruction of farmland in the mid-west during the Depression due to drought and crop failure

Social Security Act

Created a pension plan, in which workers contribute through a payroll tax towards their retirement

Frances Perkins

Fdr's Secretary of Labor; first woman in the cabinet

Wagner Act

Guaranteed the right of workers to organize into unions and prohibited unfair labor practices

Collective Bargaining

The right of a union to negotiate wages and benefits for all its members

Sit-Down Strike

Strike in which workers stay in the factory but stop production to achieve a common goal

Deficit Spending

Situation in which the government spends more than it receives in taxes