New Deal

From ArticleWorld

The New Deal is the name given to a series of programs spurred by American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The programs set out to stabilize and improve the American economy after the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Foundation

The stock market crash of 1929 left the United States with a crushed economy and soaring unemployment rate. When FDR accepted the democratic nomination for president, he promised Americans a “New Deal,” willing to try anything to get America back on its feet and provide direct relief, economic recovery, and financial reform.

The New Deal is split into two parts. The First New Deal, which lasted from 1933 to 1934, was experimental and offered benefits to almost every special-interest group. In turn, the Second New Deal presented America with a more organized plan started in 1935 and by 1937, America was on a golden road to economic recovery.

In Roosevelt’s first 100 days in office, the government began passing a series of measures to try and jump-start the American economy. Including in these were the Emergency Banking Act that stabilized American banking, the Economy Act that included cutting salaries and pensions of government employees and veterans, various farming programs that attempted to increase farming profits, and established an “alphabet soup” of government organizations, including the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, Civil Works Administration, and Public Works administration.

The New Deal also went on to breakdown prohibition by legalizing the making and selling of beer, establish the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to encourage trust in American banking, and the passage of the National Industrial Recovery Act which went on to spend more than six billion dollars to create jobs.

Continued effects of the New Deal

While economists disagree on the New Deal’s real role in ending the Great Depression, many effects of the New Deal effort are still active in America’s current economy. Including:

• Fair Labor Standards Act (1938): defines full-time as 40-hours per a week and set a minimum pay.

• Social Security Act (1935): payroll contributions provide financial assistance to elderly and people with disabilities.

• National Labor Relations Act (1935): created the National Labor Relations Board to oversee labor and management relations; originally favored labor unions.