keyterms+newdealprgrams

hyperstudy

Emergency Banking Relief Act (1933)

Closed all banks for 4 days; allowed only financially sound banks to reopen under Treasury supervision. Restored confidence.

Glass–Steagall Banking Act (1933)

Created the FDIC; separated commercial from investment banking to prevent speculation.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)

Insured individual bank deposits (initially up to $5,000) to restore faith in banks.

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

Hired young unemployed men for outdoor conservation projects—reforestation, parks, flood control.

Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)

Led by Harry Hopkins; gave direct aid and funded local/state relief efforts for the unemployed.

Public Works Administration (PWA)

Headed by Harold Ickes; built large-scale public works (bridges, dams, schools) to stimulate industry and employment.

Civil Works Administration (CWA)

Temporary jobs program during winter 1933–34; employed millions for short-term projects (“make-work”).

Works Progress Administration (WPA)

Largest New Deal agency; employed 8 million+ in construction, arts, education, and community service.

National Recovery Administration (NRA)

Created codes of fair competition, set wages/hours, and guaranteed union rights; struck down in Schechter v. U.S. (1935).

Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)

Paid farmers to reduce crop output to raise prices; declared unconstitutional in 1936, later revised.

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

Regional development program that built dams, provided hydroelectric power, and modernized the rural South.

Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC)

Refinanced home mortgages to prevent foreclosures and stabilize the housing market.

Federal Housing Administration (FHA)

Insured bank loans for building or repairing homes; encouraged new housing construction.

United States Housing Authority (USHA)

Loaned funds to local agencies for low-income public housing projects (1937).

Securities Act (1933)

Required companies to provide truthful information to investors before selling stock.

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

Regulated the stock market and limited speculative practices.

Social Security Act (1935)

Established pensions for retirees, unemployment insurance, and aid for disabled or dependent persons.

Wagner Act

Protected workers’ right to unionize; created the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Fair Labor Standards Act (1938)

Set minimum wage, 40-hour workweek, and restricted child labor in interstate industries.

Resettlement Administration (1935)

Helped move poor farmers to better land; part of Dust Bowl relief.

Brain Trust

specialists in law, economics, and welfare, many of them young university professors, who advised President D. Roosevelt and helped develop the policies of the New Deal

New Deal

economic and political policies of Franklin Roosevelt's administration in the 1930s, which aimed to solve the problems of the Great Depression by providing relieve for the unemployed and launching efforts to stimulate economic recovery

Hundred Days

the first hundred days of Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration, stretching from March 6 to June 9, 1933, when an unprecedented number of reform bills were passed by a Democratic Congress to launch the New Deal

Glass-Steagall Banking Reform Act

a law creating the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which insured individual bank deposits and ended a century-long tradition of unstable banking that had reached a crisis in the Great Depression

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

a government program created by Congress to hire young unemployed men to improve the rural, out-of-doors environment with work such as planting tress, fighting fires, draining swamps, and maintaining national parks

National Recovery Administration (NRA)

"National run around" that was an early New Deal program designed to assist industry, labor, and the unemployed through centralized planning mechanisms that monitored workers' earnings and working hours to distribute work and codes for "fair competitions" to ensure the similar procedures were followed in all firms

Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA)

a New Deal program designed to raise agricultural prices by paying farmers not to farm

Dust Bowl

grim nickname for the Great Plains region devastated by drought and dust storms

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

brought cheap electrical power, full employment, low-cost housing, and environmental improvements

Social Security Act

provided for unemployment and old age insurance financed by a payroll tax on employers and employees

Wagner Act

This law protected the right of labor to organize in unions and bargain collectively with employers

Fair Labor Standards Act

regulated minimum wages and maximum hours for workers involved in interstate commerce

Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)

labor organization that broke away from the AFL in order to organize unskilled industrial workers regardless of their particular craft

Court-packaging plan

FDR's scheme to add a new justice to the Supreme Court for every member over seventy who would not retire

Keynesianism

economic theory based on British economist John Maynard Keynes, holding that central banks should adjust interest rates (belief the government must manage the economy by spending more money when in a recession and cutting spending when there is inflation)

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Democratic president who created the New Deal to counter the effects of the Great Depression

Eleanor Roosevelt

wife of FDR

Harry L. Hopkins

Head of the Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA)

Father Charles Coughlin

A Catholic priest from Michigan who was critical of FDR on his radio show

Francis E. Townsend

A doctor and critic of FDR's who proposed that everyone 60 years of age or older should get $200 a month as long as they spent it within 30 days

Huey Long

A presidential candidate in the 1936 election known for his Share the Wealth program. He and other demagogues pushed FDR to move the New Deal to help people directly

Frances Perkins

Roosevelt's secretary of labor; the first woman to serve as a federal Cabinet officer.

Mary McLeod Bethune

United States educator who worked to improve race relations and educational opportunities for Black Americans

Robert F. Wagner

Senator associated with the national labor relations board act