Unit 6 PLA

Great Depression: a period, lasting from 1929 to 1940, in which the U.S.

economy was in severe decline and millions of Americans were unemployed

• Speculation: an involvement in a risky business transaction in an effort to

make a quick or large profit

• Buying on margin: the purchasing of stocks by paying only a small

percentage of the price and borrowing the rest

• Black Tuesday: a name given to October 29, 1929, when stock prices fell

sharply

• Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act: a law, enacted in 1930, that established the highest

protective tariff in U.S. history, worsening the depression in American and

abroad

• Dust Bowl: the region, including Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and

New Mexico, that was made worthless for farming by drought and dust

storms during the 1930s

• Breadline: a line of people waiting for free food (p. 473);

• Soup Kitchen: a place where free of low cost food is served to the needy

• Shantytown: a neighborhood in which people live in makeshift shacks

• New Deal: President Franklin Roosevelt’s program to alleviate the problems of

the Great Depression, focusing on the relief for the needy, economic

recovery, and financial reform (p. 489)

• Deficit spending: a government’s spending of more money than it receives in

revenue (p. 492)

Employment Relief Projects:

• Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC): an agency, establishes as part of the New

Deal, that put young unemployed men to work building roads, developing parks,

planting trees, and helping in erosion control and flood control projects (p. 491)

• Works Progress Administration (WPA): an agency established as part of the

Second New Deal, that provided the unemployed with job construction,

garment making, teaching, the arts, and other fields (p. 498)

Business Assistance and Reform:

• Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC): an agency created in 1933 to

insure individual’s bank accounts, protecting people against losses due to bank

failures (p. 517)

• Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC): an agency, created in 1934, that

monitors the stock market and enforces laws regulating the sale of stocks and

bonds (p. 517)

Farm Relief and Rural Development:

• Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA): a federal corporation established in 1933 to

construct dams and power plants in the Tennessee Valley region to generate

electricity as well as to prevent floods (p. 519)

Labor Relations:

• National Labor Relations Board (Wagner Act): an agency created in 1935 to

prevent unfair labor practices and to mediate disputes between workers and

management (p. 518)

• National Recovery Act: a law enacted in 1933 to establish codes of fair

practice for industries and to promote industrial growth (p. 491)

Retirement:

• Social Security Act: a law enacted in 1935 to provide aid to retirees, the

unemployed, people with disabilities, and families with dependent children (p.

501)

Causes:

• The Federal Reserve constricts the money supply

o see supplemental notes for more details

• The stock market crashes

o see supplemental notes for more details

• Excessive lending and consumer debt (installment plans / use of credit)

o see supplemental notes for more details

• Wealth is unequally distributed among the population

• Industry and agriculture overproduce

• Government pursues unsuccessful economic policies (Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act)

Effects

• People suffer widespread unemployment, hunger, poverty, and homelessness

• Roosevelt initiates the New Deal

• The New Deal:

o Goal: Increased government spending to create jobs

o Goal: Create unemployment relief

o Goal: Reforms to assist the elderly

▪ Results: The role of the federal government in Americans’ lives

expanded