Fdr's Economic Reform

The United States encountered many ordeals during the Great Depression (1929-1939). Poverty, unemployment and despair clouded the “American Dream” and intensified the urgency for solutions to address and control the nationwide damage. President Franklin Roosevelt proposed the New Deal to detoxify the nation of its suffering. It can be argued that the New Deal was ineffective due to the inability to end the Great Depression with its short-term solutions and created more problems, however; it was successful in regards to providing direct relief for the needy, economic recovery and some structural reform for the majority of the general public in the severity of the Great Depression.

Once President Franklin Roosevelt was elected during the Great Depression, his first 100 days enacted what he called the New Deal. This “deal” was a series of reforms that were meant to increase available jobs, better the working conditions, and put money back into the economy. Jobs offered during this time, as well as the relief, recovery, and reform efforts gave a kick start to the American economy, helping to pull us out of the Great Depression. Some examples of these efforts can be seen in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the National Recovery Administration (NRA), and the Social Security Act (SSA).

In his inaugural address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt set the tone for the upcoming half century when he confidently said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”. In response to the economic collapse of the Great Depression, a bold and highly experimental fleet of government bureaus and agencies known as Roosevelt’s Alphabet Soup were created to service the programs of the New Deal and to provide recovery to the American people. The New Deal was one of the most ambitious programs in American history, with implications and government programs that can still be seen to this day. Through its enactment of social reform and conservation programs, the New Deal mounted radical policies that gave the federal government unprecedented power in the nation’s economy and society, however, the New Deal did not bring America out of the Great Depression and could be considered conservative in the context of the era, ultimately saving capitalism from collapsing in America.

America during the 1920’s is often described as a time of prosperity and change that allowed the United States to peak. However, what is commonly overlooked is that this era was conflict filled in which society was blinded by luxurious lifestyles and the entertainment industry; preventing any solutions from being formed that could deal with the various issues. It was the people’s ignorance and the problem filled cities that slowly pushed America into the great depression within a decade. After World War I finally came to an end on June 28, 1999 through the Treaty of Versailles, the United States became the most powerful nation in the world since it was the least affected by the war compared to Europe. In fact, American industry and economy

Faced with the Great Depression and World War II, Franklin D Roosevelt, or “FDR”, brought America through its hardest times. Franklin Roosevelt was brought into to office during one of America's greatest domestic crisis’s, The Great Depression, this was a time when America's economy had a rigorous decline. Roosevelt acted swiftly during these times, and did what he believed was best for America. The United States changed during Franklin Roosevelt's presidency by the creation of a new role for the government in the economy, the nature of presidency changing, and the establishment of the social security act, which is an act that set up a pension system for people who have retired, established unemployment insurance, and created insurance for victims who were involved in work related accidents. This act also provided aid for mothers and children who were in poverty, the blind, and the disabled.

Beginning in October 19, 1929 and ending in 1939, the American people had no hope having endured severe unemployment, food shortages, and dreadful living conditions. Life started to turn around when Franklin D. Roosevelt stepped into office and put his New Deal programs into play. Franklin and his administration quickly addressed the problems that had led to the Great Depression by executing policies that would successfully address reform, relief, and unsuccessful recovery. Following World War II it ultimately repaired most of America from the Great Depression but, Franklin’s New Deal programs were the major cause that stopped America’s economic downfall. By Franklin stepping into office and presenting his New Deal programs, this relieved

Just when America was displaying it’s phenomenal growth potential to the world, the unthinkable happens. The Great Depression was an economic slump in North America, Europe, and other industrialized areas in the world. It lasted about 10 years, beginning with the catastrophic collapse of stock market in 1929. Roosevelt’s response to the terrible recession was the ‘New Deal’, which set forth an abundance of federal agencies to aid his citizen’s in their financial crisis. Although Franklin Roosevelt’s response to the economic hardship of America failed to recover, it relieved and reformed the suffering of the American people and increased the power of government.

The American History provides a predicament between the actions and different point of views of President Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR),in the new deal to save the American people during the Great Depression of the 1930s. In David M. Kennedy essay “FDR: Advocate for the American People” describes the difference between these two presidents, and also explains how the New Deal proposed by President Roosevelt help to deal with the chaos that whats’ happening at the time. The President FDR played an important role in bring reforms, and changing the way of life for many Americans. The New Deal stressed recovery through planning and cooperation with business, but also tried to aid the unemployment and reform the economic system.

The New Deal policies were created by Franklin D. Roosevelt and his people who are known as the “New Dealers”. They were created in hopes that they would bring relief, recovery, and reform to America and help bring America out of the depression. This flawed plan that many historians believe was largely a success brought America another rescission and caused the unemployment rate to rise. To believe that the New Deal was largely a success is to overlook its many failures and negative impact on America. From the failure of the NRA to the hostile reactions of many critics to the fact that unemployment rose, and the discrimination towards women and blacks it is clear that this New Deal was far from a success and was indeed very flawed.

The early half of the nineteenth century was a whirlwind of emotions for the american public. Society boomed the 1920s as world war one was over and done with and the consumer market grew to extraordinary measures. However, once the 1930s hit, the United States spiraled into a nation wide economic depression. Not much longer, the world threw itself into world war two in the 1940s. During most of this period Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the president, being that he served the nation as president from 1933 to 1945, and sought to stabilize America in every way possible. One of the ways this was done was through foreign policy. As the prospect of peace and then isolationism faded, America gradually went from supporting a government that avoided

President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) and his New Deal staffers rode high into the second term in office. There was mild economic growth; the legislative body was behind New Deal programs, and the vast majority of the population liked what they had seen in his first four years as president. Nevertheless, the second New Deal was not going to be well received. The Supreme Court clamped down FDR legislations and eliminated the NRA and the AAA. Privately, FDR feared that the Supreme Court would eliminate all of his New Deal legislation. Southern Democrats refused to align with FDR and they would not comply with his economic policies, wage increases, and social policies that were forced upon the southern states. A mini recession took place in 1937-38

Modern America has faced numerous complex issues like the economy, government relations to the public, and forgive affairs that have been addressed by the government but have yet to be thoroughly solved. As a man who came into office in the midst of a downfall and left with all Americans having new hope for the future, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a man of extraordinary capacity who demonstrated no apprehension in finding a way to take care of the country's issues. Taking into consideration the foundation of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s administration, one can conclude that Roosevelt would be reelected in the modern era as he was a man with a concrete plan involving significant change, the faculty to relate to the general population, and the conviction that whenever possible, America should avail other nations at war.

The economic crisis that showed all the contradictions of capitalism led to an increase of a deep political crisis in the USA in late 1920?s. October 29, 1929 is known in the American history as the Black Tuesday. It was the date, when the American stock market collapsed. In such economically difficult situation, in November 1932, a regular presidential election took place. The Democrat Franklin Roosevelt, who spoke with the program the New Deal, came to presidency. It was a series of social liberal programs applied in the United States in 1933-1938 in response to the Great Depression. The New Deal was focused on three main principles: relief, recovery, and reform.[footnoteRef:1] They promised to bring the country to prosperity and economically stable future. However, the Conservatives criticized the New Deal during the whole period of the reforms. It was expressed by Herbert Hoover in Anti-New Deal Campaign Speech in 1936 and Minnie Hardin in 1937 in a Letter to Eleanor Roosevelt. [1: (notes)]

From 1929 to 1945, two catastrophes occurred: the Great Depression and World War II. American political leaders established a cause-effect relationship between economic collapse and total war, based on these two events, which defined their policy approach in the post-war period. In the 1930s, American leadership, and most importantly, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, came to view economic decline, political radicalization, and instability as forming a vicious cycle that led to utter chaos and war. Although FDR did not know the future consequences of the economic fallout, he did know that breaking the cycle was of systemic importance. FDR’s policy platform, known as the New Deal, disregarded the historical wariness for government intervention and boldly connected economic security to freedom. Essentially, he attempted to push the American system to its limit in order to save it. Even with conservative elements constantly attempting to restrain his initiatives, FDR expanded his focus in the latter years of the 1930s to include international affairs as war broke out in Europe, Africa, and Asia. FDR and other government elites openly talked about the responsibility America had to build a new world order.

The next step in FDRs New Deal is recovery. The objective of the National Recovery Administration was to create codes for businesses to follow. These codes would then help to provide minimum wages for employees, restrict the number of hours worked to prevent over time and set prices and production levels. The goal was to fix the American economy by limiting competition, rising power purchased by the consumer and hiring unemployed workers back to work for them once more. By mid-1933, the new agency achieved the voluntary acceptance by nearly 600 industries of new codes. The new codes covered nearly 30 million workers. One problem was that the chief administrator was chosen because of his well-known service in the WIB during World War I. Sadly,