Roosevelt's "New Deal"

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Recommended: Economic causes and impacts of the stock market crash of 1929

At the beginning of the 1930s, the American dollar depreciated rapidly, 17% of the workforce became unemployed, and Americans were losing hope in Capitalist ideas. During the 1932 election, Franklin Delano Roosevelt ran for office with the “New Deal” as his main focus. Soon after becoming elected and entering office on March 4th, 1933, he started implementing many new programs he felt would return the economy’s level to pre-1929. Many problems created by the stock market crash of 1929 were alleviated by the end of FDR’s third term, but the New Deal might not have been a total success. Many of the programs that were generated during the early days of the depression failed to perform as they were intended to, whereas others simply did not meet the standards expected of them. The New Deal had dramatic effects on how the government operated after Franklin Roosevelt’s stint in office, but did it perform admirably against the depression?

During the first one hundred days of FDR assuming office, fourteen different acts were passed to stimulate the economy. The first program enacted was the Emergency Banking Act, passed on March 9th, 1933. The EBA’s intention was to evaluate all banks, small and large, on their practices and finances to guarantee they could handle daily operations without going into default. The Economy Bill quickly followed, passing through Congress on March 13th. Many of the Congressmen did not favor the bill, largely because it lowered all Federal income by fifteen percent. It also, “…delegated to the president broad executive powers to overhaul and slim down the veterans’ benefit system…”(First Hundred Days, p 52.) Other Congressmen were worried about the reduction in veterans’ benefits because a large ma...

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...ry stipulation that they wanted. These programs fell either short or did not even alleviate the problems they were intended for and classified as negative or unsuccessful.

Even though many of the programs that Franklin Delano Roosevelt initiated may not have performed up to the standard that he and the American people had hoped they would have you can not consider the New Deal a failure. With all of the programs that succeeded to complete their mission during the 1930s and some that are still in place today the evidence is clear that the New Deal was a success. The unemployment slowly decreased throughout the 1930s from 17% of the population to below 10%. America’s economy was not at the same level as the pre stock market crash of 1929 until 1940, however, the New Deal programs implemented during the 1930s helped slow and ultimately restore this economy.

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