FDR took many steps to involve the government in the great depression; this approach was the very antithesis of the way the prior republican president Hoover, who primarily followed laissez-faire style economics, had attempted to recover from the disaster. The central examples of government involvement were in government spending on new programs; many of these were passed in FDR's first 100 days of office. Chiefly, the new deal was implemented and alphabet agencies introduced. The new deal involved huge "make work" projects (i.e. the interstate) and hugely were expensive; therefore they relied on deficit financing. Moreover, alphabet agencies were introduced - furthering the governments debt. They were programs developed to help certain sectors of the recovering economy such as agriculture. This Keynesian style of economics had worked well for other nations including Japan and Germany and it required the breadth and size of government to reach levels the United States was yet to experience.
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The main cause for the market crash of 29 was the lack of regulation on the banks. When banks were able to give out loans to anyone who wanted on to invest, they were making the interest on the money they lent while those who borrowed were making a profit as the value of the stocks increased. The seemingly infallibility and efficiency of this transaction was the reason that they were happening on such a massive scale. But when panic ensued and many began to rapidly sell their shares, the individual stocks lost huge portions of their values almost instantaneously and therefore everyone who owned shares lost a huge portion of the money they had in them. Consequently, these people couldn't pay back the bank for the loans because they were bankrupt. But ultimately the banks were out of all their money as well because most of what had been lent out was essentially obliterated. Those who hadn't even invested money lost what they had as well. The stock prices would continue to plummet during the years to come but the scale of the crash was mainly caused by the absence of any regulations as to the reason for or recipient of bank loans. During the game, it felt great when I was making money and as though I was doing so without having to do any actual work. When it crashed, I felt frankly stupid for taking the money out in the first place, although I didn't exactly have choice.
After the first world war and the terror of the Spanish flu, the American people were given the opportunity to work in jobs that no longer went towards the war effort. Rather, many factory jobs were available during the boom of the twenties that's products and profits went directly into the american economy and thus a cycle of rapid growth occurred. Many now had time for work and leisure and many were able to purchase consumer goods which hadn't been available to them before. This created a consumer society and therefore cultural influences and culture in general became a much larger aspect in American lives as the time and resources were newly available to them. Many people owned cars for the first time and celebrities became even more influential than politicians. The rigid, conservative way in which many and most importantly women lived began to progress as jazz clubs became popular, skirt hems shortened and the social climate of the US shifted.
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