The Wall Street Crash of 1929

The United States entered one of the most devastating economic periods in its history after the stock market crash of 1929. The massive damage done to the quality of life of the average American during this time, known as the Great Depression, prompted a fundamental change in the attitude of the nation. The most notable change was a shift in public belief about what type of President would best serve the struggling nation. The election of Franklin D. Roosevelt completely reversed the trend of Presidents that pursued policies focused around benefitting businesses and the wealthy. Whereas leaders before him held fast in their support of big businesses, even to the point of ignoring the harm they had brought to the country, Roosevelt focused his

In FDR’s Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression, Jim Powell discusses how Roosevelt’s New Deal actually prolonged the Great Depression and made it significantly worse economically for the people in the 1930s United States. Powell reveals a different angle of the “hero” Franklin Delano Roosevelt, his New Deal, and how he allegedly lead the United States out of the Great Depression. Throughout this book, the author analyzes the actions and repercussions of Roosevelt’s economic decisions revealing how these decisions actually made the depression significantly worse. Along with that, the author analyzes the various policies and implementations in a more in-depth way that really convinces the reader of the poor

The businessmen and bankers were against Roosevelt's “New Deal program.” (Source B). “They feared his experiments, were appalled because he had taken the nation off the gold standard and allowed deficits in the budget, and dislike the concessions to labor.” (Source B). Mr. Roosevelt did not like being talked about like this so he responded with a new program of reform which was: Social Security, heavier taxes on the wealthy, new controls over banks and public utilities, and an enormous relief program for the unemployed. Yet another action taken by him to ensure that all the American people were satisfied. And in response to the people who still has fear in them Roosevelt says that “The only thing you have to fear is fear itself.” (Source

“Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.” Franklin D Roosevelt, an American political leader who served as the President of the United States from 1933-1945 who brought the country out of The Great Depression. Although some critics say that FDR worsened the country, he put an end to the problems of the country and helped escape the troubled situations of their rough time period especially while the citizens were dealing with the stock market crash, causing unemployment and money loss which then led to struggle of many families. The response of FDR’s administration to the problems of the Great Depression was effective because he established many New Deal programs,

Many have argued that the New Deal was unconstitutional and violated the rights of government power. Roosevelt responded to these arguments speaking of political and economic inequality claiming that “these economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they are really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of of power” (Voices of Freedom, 169). He believed that those who disagreed with his programs sought to protect their own economic interests. The New Deal and its programs assisted so many suffering at the time, and helped save the nation by throwing the people a lifeline, giving them hope for the future as opposed to the alternative which, proven by Herbert

Shortly after the Great Depression began, society began to fail quickly. The stock market crashed, the unemployment rate skyrocketed, business’ and banks were closing and people were losing their homes they had worked so hard for. Although President Hoover was attempting to help society, he believed that instead of governmental interventions you should be self-reliant and would not fund welfare programs that may incentivize not working. Hoover’s “attempts” to aide the economy were not enough to turn it around, and people began to set their sights on Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the oncoming election. FDR made it his goal to ensure relief, recovery and reform were provided for the country to counteract the Great Depression and to make up for all of the years of negligence and non interference from the government, collectively called the “New Deal” 15 major laws were created in just the first 100 days he was in office, and his “New Deal” was coming into fruition and the governments role was now to step in and take care of it’s people, and to neglect them no longer.

The election of 1932 focused primarily on the Great Depression, the recent economic crisis that had swallowed the nation. At this time, thirteen million people were unemployed and 774 banks were shutting down annually. Economically unstable, Americans turned to Franklin Delano Roosevelt who claimed, “better days were ahead” with his New Deal reformation. He promised economic “recovery, job creation, investment in public works, and civic uplift” (Harvey 88). Immediately upon entering the white house, he began his 3 R process: relief, recovery, and reform (Bateman and Taylor 73). While this revolution would bring reform to U.S banking systems and help improve unemployment, the restoring of economic stability would go unmet; therefore, we must question the true effectiveness of this reformation. Roosevelt is considered to be one of the nation’s greatest and most influential presidents, yet he did not end the great depression as he was expected to. Was FDR as potent as we credit him to be? By exploring society before the depression, comparing presidents prior to FDR, as well as dissecting the success and failures of his New Deal reconstruction, we can analyze and conclude FDR’s true role in healing the nation.

Roosevelt. This World War One navy veteran saw the troubles that the United States was going through, (document 5) and promised a ‘New Deal’. During his run in office, he had three goals: Relief for the unemployed, repair the economy, and reforms to prevent another depression (the three R’s). The first thing Roosevelt did was fix the banking system. He knew that without stable banks, money would not be able to start flowing in the economy anymore. He ordered and ‘Bank Holiday’ and went through to all the banks making sure they were financially stable, and shut down the ones that were not. The nation soon had faith in Roosevelt and quickly saw brighter days ahead. Roosevelt provided relief for the unemployed through the Civilian Conservation Corps, and the Works Progress Administration. Both hired unemployed civilians to work building parks, playgrounds, hospitals, schools, etc. Roosevelt also provided recovery to the industry and farmers. He passed acts such as the National Industrial Recovery Act, and the Agricultural Adjustment Act. He paid farmers to start planting a variety of crop instead of competing in prices for the same product. He also provided long-term reforms and has so far prevented another depression through acts such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Social Security

(5) Fifth, In FDR’s view, the failure of the economic system came about partly because the ideal of rugged individualism was used as a cover to prevent needed government action. His believed the Depression had persuaded Americans to “alter their beliefs about the “rugged individual” thus minimizing their objections to a national program (Atkinson, 2006).

Roosevelt proposed a “new deal” for the people, which would provide aid to the public during the depression (it was meant to provide “Recovery, Relief and Reform”). According to Document 6, the political cartoon illustrates Franklin D Roosevelt with a bag labeled “New Deal Remedies” which pretty much shows the action plan that he had in mind in order to help the United States recover from the economic downfall. To add on, many public offices or churches also contributed in helping many homeless and unemployed people as they would serve soup or bread (Document 4). However, some people also felt kind of left out and thus the Bonus Army (World War 1 veterans) went protesting in Washington D.C. Thus, in this times of despair many people and groups reacted in different

The traditional view of Franklin D. Roosevelt is that he motivated and helped the United States during the “Great Depression” and was a great president, however, as time has passed, economist historians have begun analyzing Roosevelt’s presidency. Many have concluded that he did not help America during the Great Depression but instead amplified and prolonged the depression. Jim Powell wrote about FDR economic policies and did an excellent job explaining Roosevelt’s incompetent initiatives. Roosevelt did not know anything about economics and his advisors made everything worse by admiring the Soviet Union.

He felt that a hands-on approach from the government, one that had been avoided in earlier history, was necessary. Leaving the nation’s fate to the citizens’ volunteering wouldn’t work; after all, it hadn’t in the past. In its place, Roosevelt created agencies and programs to push the nation up instead of trusting it to lift itself. His plan, the so-called “new deal” would essentially reform America’s financial systems. His actual plan described relief for citizens out of work, the recovery of the nation’s business and economy, and the reformation of American economic institutions. He was quick to act, and acted thoroughly, focusing on the government’s intervention over the public’s volunteerism and

Roosevelt’s change in of mind was in essence a shift in execution as he now viewed changing the economy through government control and consumption. Brinkley illustrates these changes as he states “ On issues of political economy… a consensus had begun to emerge behind a new kind of liberalism : a liberalism less inclined to challenge corporate behavior than some of the reforms ideas of the 1930’s had done… a liberalism strongly committed to the use of more “ compensatory,” tools- a combination of Keynesian fiscal measures and enhanced welfare-state mechanism- to ensure prosperity” ( Brinkley 139). The proposed stability included bank regulations, welfare programs, anti-monopoly , and overall legislation that brought upon equality in American society. However, to those older liberal this new behavior seemed conflicting because it did not follow the idea of challenging the economic elites. Roosevelt’s plan evidently had the shared goals with older liberalism, but its Keynesian ideology meant working with economic elites , instead of challenging their power to boost

The stock market is what one would know as a collective group of buyers/sellers that trade stocks, also known as shares on a stock exchange. These securities are listed on the exchange itself and trade freely each and every day. On the exchange, stocks move hands day in and day out. Companies are able to get their stock listed on the exchange at any time that they want. There are other stocks, too...known as OTC stocks or over the counter stocks that go through a specific dealer. Larger companies tend to have their stocks listed on exchanges all throughout the world. Participants in the market can be anyone from your grandma, to retail investors, day traders, institutional investors, and so forth. One notable exchange is the NYSE; also known as The New York Stock Exchange. Moving forward, a stock market crash is when a decline of stock prices takes place throughout the stock market that results in a catastrophic loss of wealth via paper. The crashes are driven strictly by panic 9 times out of 10 a crash takes place. As a crash is happening, panic occurs; the panic keeps evolving and ends up like the snowball effect before you know it. A crash occurs when economic events take place. These events are always bad news... The behavior of traders follows, which leads to a crash when panic ensues. Crashes normally occur of a seven day period and may extend even further. Crashes happen in bear markets as the market is already weak to begin with. Once traders see a drop in prices,

The Meltdown is a PBS special on the events of the financial crisis of 2008, in a timeline format, revealing the thinking behind decisions made during the fateful months before the stock market crash in August of that year. Some financial gurus on Wall Street devised a plan to bundle several mortgages together into a group, and then selling that bundle to another group of investors looking to invest in securities. The lender did not need to earn money from the loans he was giving out, he merely gained enough of a profit from the bundling operation that billions were being made on Wall Street from 2005-2008. The problem is that these bundles were risky, and as credit unworthy individuals defaulted on their mortgages, the entire system crumbled into what is now known as the Stock Market Crash of 2008, and have subsequently lived during the Great Recession.