FDR and the New Deal

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”

March 1933

1933 America

• High unemployment

• Bank failures

• poverty

• Hunger in shantytowns

• “Dustbowl”

FDR“New Deal”

http://www.youtube.com/v/amNpxQANk0M

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”

FDR’s first “100 Days”

1. Closed the banks for 4 days – “Emergency Banking Act”

3. Slash government spending – “The Economy Act”

4. Amendment 21 – repeal Prohibition!

2. “Fireside Chats”

http://www.youtube.com/v/yhB7UaMn0IY&feature=related

The New Deal• The creation of “Alphabet Agencies”

Agricultural Adjustment Act

Civilian Conservation Corps

Tennessee Valley Authority

Public Works Administration

John Maynard Keynes

• if the amount of money being saved exceeds the amount being invested – which can happen if interest rates are too high – then unemployment will rise

Keynesian Economics

• Government intervention in the economy

Results?• Unemployment remained high, but

decreased greatly through his term

• restored hope and self-respect to tens of millions of desperate people

• built labor unions

• upgraded the national infrastructure

• Saved capitalism instead of nationalizing banks and railroads

FDR’s popular appeal

• All letters and phone calls to the White House were answered

• Fireside Chats brought the President into the American family’s home

• Through most of his 1st term, Americans were unaware of his disability

The negative side…

The Agricultural Adjustment Act

Farmers paid subsidies NOT to plant part of their land AND to kill excess livestock = raised value of goods

Tenant farmers and sharecroppers were hit the hardest

The drought of 1933 - 1935

New Deal Opponents

Huey “Kingfish” Long

“Share Our Wealth”

Against big banking

Put a cap on personal fortunes

Guaranteed minimum income per family

New Deal Opponents

Charles Coughlin

Attacked communism and socialism

Early supporter of FDR

Sympathetic to Hitler and antisemitism

New Deal Opponents

Dr. Francis Townsend

Called for greater social security reforms that FDR would offer

New Deal Opponents

Supreme Court

Struck down the NRA

Threatened other programs as “unconstitutional”

New Deal Opponents

Employers, Banks, Republicans

Relief is a waste of

taxes

Communist form of

Government!

http://www.youtube.com/v/qqt7b9veFo8&feature=related