Great Depression

Warren Harding

Warren Harding

• Won the 1920 election

• First president during the roaring twenties

• “return to normalcy”

• run the government like a business

• Currup: Ohio gang

Calvin Collage

• Took over when Harding died

• won the 1924 election

• The government should let businessmen handle their own affairs

• A man of few words

Herbert Hoover

• Won the election of 1928

• Height of Republican Ascendancy

Consumer Goods Industry

• Making lots of Durable goods: automobile industry was booming

• Lack of Diversity: Only construction and automobiles

Rise in the use of Credit

people were buying nearly everything on credit, especially stocks. This caused a lot of inflation and when the market crash they were in lots of debt

Mellon plan

• Tax cut plan proposed in the 1920s

• Tax cuts to the richest people so that they would have more money to expand their businesses and pay workers

• Tickle down economics → never works

• increased the wealth gap

Economic/political interactions between the US and Europe during the 1920s

• Many European countries owed the US money

• after WW1, the US wanted to remain out of European affairs and economies → Return to normalcy

• The US wanted peaceful resolution after WW1 but European powers still had tensions

• Republican presidents pursued pro-business and laissaz-faire policies

Farm Life in the 1920-1930

• In the 1930s, many farms faced foreclosure due to low prices for agricultural goods

• The Dust bowl furthered these difficulties and many farmers like the Great Plains → Okies

Isolation

The US didn’t want to interfere with European issues

Return to Normalcy

Navitism

• Rise of the KKK: more national and against immigration

• Palmer raids: looking fro suspected russian spies → stop communism, they targeted immigrants: eastern European and Russian

• Emergency Quota act: 3% of an ethnicity, limit people based on origin

• Eugenics movement: change the genetic pool of the US to encourage some people to reproduce and discourage others → Sterized and put in Mental institutions and prisons

Great Migration

African Americans moved from the south to northern cities

• met with lots off racism: Red summer and Tulsa Race massacre

Stock market crash cases

• Speculation: Not buying stocked based on history/knowledge → bigger peaks and troughs

• Buying on margin: with credit/borrowed money → inflation

• Interest rate hike by federal government

Stock Market crash effects

• Bank runs: people withdrew their money in the bank → banks were shutting down

• People stopped buying goods and unemployment tripled

Causes of the Great depression

• Overproduction: The automobile and construction industries had too much supply with too little demand

• Overuse of Credit

• The Smoot-hawlet Tariff → decline in global trade

• Bank failures and panics

• Inflation and collapse in the money supply

Herbert Hoover Presidency and Rugged Individualism

• Believed that the American people should just work harder → American Individualism: hard work brought it’s own rewards

• $160 mil in tax cuts

• vetoed relief bills

• gave money to businesses, banks, and public works projects

Smoot-Hawlet tarrif

Hoover raised tariffs on thousands of imports to increase the sale of American goods

• increased the global depression and caused a collapse in world trade

FRD road to Presidency

• FDR became governer of NY and managed it well during the Great Depression

• growing resentment towards Hoover

• easily became president in the election of 1932

Dust bowl causes

• Overfarming of monocultures (wheat) in the Midwest → soil lost nutrients

• Massive droughts and heavy winds causes dust storms

Dust Bowl effects

farmers left the Midwest to go to California and Washington to find jobs

• Called Okies

Okies

Farmers who left the Midwest during the Dust bowl to find jobs

Fireside Chats

FDR used these to explain the New Deal policies to the American People

• Simple and clear language

• gained popularity, support for programs, confidence that the government is actually working to help them

Banking Holiday

FDR made the fed go to every bank and inspect them

• good bank with healthy business decisions were reopens while banks with Predatory decisions were closed

• Increased public trust on banks

Emergency Banking Act

• more power to federal government to make sure banks and acting properly

• separates money from gold → more flexibility

• Bank holiday: four days to check every bank in america

Federal Emergency relief Act (FERA)

- reduce unemployment rates

-jobs will be created 

-relief checks - food and shelter - to families 

SEC (Securities Act)

- Restore investor trust

- regulate the market and increase transparency

FDIC (Glass-Steagall Banking Act)

-establish a distinction between investment and commercial banks 

-regulate federal banks 

-ensure the safe use of depositor’s shareholder’s money

CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps)

-establish work sites within national parks and forest 

-provide jobs and plant jobs

WPA (Works Progress Administration)

-8 million jobs for americans -> construction

-build schools, roads, and bridges

NIRA (National Industrial Recovery Act)

limiting hours and launching a public works program and b) increasing individuals' purchasing power by establishing minimum wage rates

AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Act)

-To stabilize the agricultural economy 

-regulate pricing so that farmers make profits

NLRB (Wagner Act)

-all workers to have certain rights -> workers unions 

- raise wages and better working conditions 

TVA (authority)

problems and improve the quality of life in the Tennessee valley region 

-Establish the largest public power plant company in the US 

-Establish a hydroelectric power plant

PWA (Publics Works Administration )

- creating jobs jobs through public infrastructure

Escapism

Americans would still go to movies to try and forget about their financial situation

• More interest in sex and sexuality

• Movies were about the community

hoboes

people who would move around form place to place to look for jobs

Supreme Court vs. FDR

• The Supreme Court would try every single First New Deal Act — overreach of Federal gov power

• FDR proposed the Judicary procedures reform Bill → never passed

• The Supreme Court gets scared and doesn’t challenge second New deal acts

Critics of Great Depression

Young intellectual’s edevours would come to grips with feeling of disillusionment

• Hopeless and Despair

• Criticized and escaped it

• Eg. Fitzgerald

Huey Long

• Critic of the Great Depression

• We need to target the wealthy bc they have too much in savings

  • Wealth distribution

  • Assasinated

Success of the New deal

Good for prevention

• Glass-Steagal Act → good banks

• Regulation of the Stock market

• Social Security and Relief

failures of the New Deal

• Not good at recovery → didn’t end the Great depression

• only gave jobs to white males → only specific populations

End of Great Depression

Ended during WW2 → war economy