In 1929, The Great Depression seized America. The country wallowed for four years in
desperation, until a new leader was elected. Franklin Delano Roosevelt came to the presidency in 1933 focused and with a plan like never before. His so called “New Deal” was the innovation of policy at the time, and the public responded in turn. The country seemed to be on the steady process to recovery. The twelve years of desperation from 1929 to 1941 changed the face of America today. While kissing away college scholarships and hours at my government-sponsored after-school job, I had a revelation like a concertgoer at the ’69 Woodstock (minus the LSD): these two defining periods of American history were simultaneously changing my life despite the eighty years difference in that moment. As we continue on our own path to what we hope will repair the shards of our shattered American capitalism, I wondered if my faith in President Obama’s plan was justified. The similarities between the 2009 recovery and the New Deal were immense, and I sought my answer through analyzing Franklin D. Roosevelt’s response to an even greater economic plight. Economists still debate the true success of the New Deal and the resounding impact it had on the country. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal policies eventually succeeded in rebuilding the American economy to functionality and its legacy is still proving effective in today’s modern economic dilemmas.
In the 1920’s the United States was on the road to recovery. Having survived World War I and now an established international powerhouse, the U.S. economy was becoming a lion in world economics. The American stock market had risen to new heights, and had become a central force in the American economy. However, like a child with sugar and climbing a tree, this proved to be more of a demon than a blessing. An article published in the New York Times on March 24, 1929 described the credit frenzy of the decade:
…the number of brokerage accounts had doubled in the past two years [1927-1929]. . . .
It is quite true that the people who know the least about the stock market have made the most money out of it in the last few months. Fools who rushed in where wise men feared to tread ran up high gains. (Norris)
This article was the doomsday prophecy that soon came true. The stock market suffered through scrapes and scratches in the months th...
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In October 1929, the United States stock market crashed due to panic selling. This crash started a rippling effect that contributed to a world wide economic crisis called the Great Depression. This crash was such a shock because of the economic expansion of the 1920’s when the Dow Jones average reached an all time high of three hundred eighty one. The year 1928 was a time of optimism and the stock market had become a place where everyday people truly believed that they could become rich. People everywhere were talking about the market and newspapers were reporting stories of ordinary people such as chauffeurs, maids, and teachers making millions off the stock market. People who didn’t have the money bought on margin. The stock market was booming and the excitement about the market caused a lot of over speculation. People ignored the small signs of the impending crash until Black Thursday, October 24, 1929. Four days later the stock market fell again.
The Great Depression tested America’s political organizations like no other event in United States’ history except the Civil War. The most famous explanations of the period are friendly to Roosevelt and the New Deal and very critical of the Republican presidents of the 1920’s, bankers, and businessmen, whom they blame for the collapse. However, Amity Shlaes in her book, The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression, contests the received wisdom that the Great Depression occurred because capitalism failed, and that it ended because of Roosevelt’s New Deal. Shlaes, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a syndicated financial columnist, argues that government action between 1929 and 1940 unnecessarily deepened and extended the Great Depression.
During the 1920's, the North American economy was roaring, but this decade would eventually be put to a stop. In October of 1929, the stock market began its steepest decline to this date in history. Many stock market traders and economists believe and pray that it was a one-shot episode never to be repeated. On the other hand, many financial analysts and other economists believe that the current stock markets are in place to repeat the calamitous errors of the 1920's. In this paper, I will analyze the causes of the crash and discuss the possibilities of it re-occurring.
The stock market crash of 1929 is the primary event that led to the collapse of stability in the nation and ultimately paved the road to the Great Depression. The crash was a wide range of causes that varied throughout the prosperous times of the 1920’s. There were consumers buying on margin, too much faith in businesses and government, and most felt there were large expansions in the stock market. Because of all these...
Richard Kinderdall, The New Deal as Watershed: The Recent Literature, The Journal of American History, Vol 54, No.4 March 1968 p.845
In the midst of the greatest depression in the history of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt and his committees drafted The New Deal, consisting of policies which they hoped would help all declining facets of the nation at the time. The American people needed to heed a promising leader that would set plans to end the depression, a change from president Hoover who seemed to have no set plan for foe dealing with such economic crisis. The New Deal aimed to stimulate the economy, create jobs, and lift America out of the economic strife. The controversy amongst historians that surrounds the New Deal is whether or not it prospered in helping America out of a depression. David M. Kennedy argues that the New Deal did indeed serve its purpose, by implementing policies, which improved the economy as well as American lifestyle on a general level, in his piece What the New Deal Did. In New Deal Agricultural Policy: An Evaluation, Theodore Saloutos comes to the same conclusion as Kennedy, except focused on agricultural aspects of the New Deal that helped revive the economy. On the other hand, Harold L. Cole and Lee E. Ohanian use statistics to argue that the New Deal policies were the reason why the economy was unable to recover following the Great Depression in their piece, New Deal Policies and the Persistence of the Great Depression: A General Equilibrium Analysis. After examining all three articles, Cole and Ohanian’s findings seem to overpower the opinions of Kennedy and Saloutos, resulting in the conclusion that the New Deal policies did more harm than good for America.
President Roosevelt's New Deal program during the 1930's failed to aid impoverished African-American citizens. The New Deal followed a long, historical chronology of American failures in attempts to ensure economic prosperity and racial equality. During the nearly seventy years after the conclusion of the Civil War, the United States faced a series of economic depressions, unmotivated Congress,' and a series of mediocre presidents. With the exception of Teddy Roosevelt, few presidents were able to enact anti-depression mechanisms and minimize unemployment. The America of the 1920's was a country at its lowest economic and social stature facing a terrible depression and increasing racial turmoil. Author and historian Harvey Wish described the situation as follows:
During the great depression, then President, Herbert Hoover disappointed Americans. America was therefore ready for a change. In 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected as President. He pledged a “New Deal” for the country. According to Exploring American Histories, this New Deal would eventually “provide relief, put millions of people to work, raise price for farmers, extend conservation projects, revitalize America’s financial system and restore capitalism.”
It has been said that every good thing must arrive at an end. On account of the Roaring Twenties that end came suddenly and startlingly. It is simple for one to think back upon the monetary circumstance that prompt the accident and disparagement the specialists for not seeing the indications of a potential calamity. Be that as it may, it was not all that simple for them to see such an accident coming. The 1920 's were a blasting decade and stock costs appeared to be at an unfaltering move for an apparently interminable ascent. Numerous elements can be ascribed to the reason for the accident however nobody element can be singled out as the lone reason. The real reasons for the share trading system accident of 1929
The United States signaled a new era after the end of World War I. It was an era of hopefulness when many people invested their money that was under the mattresses at home or in the bank into the stock market. People migrated to the prosperous cities with the hopes of finding much better life. In the 1920s, the stock market reputation did not appear to be a risky investment, until 1929.First noticeable in 1925, the stock market prices began to rise as more people invested their money. During 1925 and 1926, the stock prices vacillated but in 1927, it had an upward trend. The stock market boom had started by 1928. The stock market was no longer a long-term investment because the boom changed the investor’s way of thinking (“The Stock Market Crash of 1929”). The Stock Market Crash of 1929 was a mass hysteria because of people investing without any prior knowledge and the after effects that eventually led to the Great Depression.
In an era of superficial prosperity and indulgence, most Americans “threw all care to the wind” (Danzer, Klor de Alva, Krieger, Wilson, Woloch). Ron Chernow observed that “in the 1920s you could buy stocks on margin. You could put 10 percent down and borrow the rest against your stocks.” Buying on margin is exactly what reflected the American public of the 20s- reckless and optimistic. By using leverage to invest, buyers can maximize their profits through the stock in a bull market ("Buying Stock on Margin"). This idea of using brokers’ money to gain profit for themselves appealed to many Americans. The great bull market that had lasted for six years further instigated irrational exuberance- or the extreme confidence in investors that they overlooked the degrading economic fundamentals- in the American public (Shiller). However, this overvaluation proved to be deadly. Margin loan, like a double-edged sword, eventually stabbed Americans in the back- and stabbed them hard. The
The New Deal period has generally - but not unanimously - been seen as a turning point in American politics, with the states relinquishing much of their autonomy, the President acquiring new authority and importance, and the role of government in citizens' lives increasing. The extent to which this was planned by the architect of the New Deal, Franklin D. Roosevelt, has been greatly contested, however. Yet, while it is instructive to note the limitations of Roosevelt's leadership, there is not much sense in the claims that the New Deal was haphazard, a jumble of expedient and populist schemes, or as W. Williams has put it, "undirected". FDR had a clear overarching vision of what he wanted to do to America, and was prepared to drive through the structural changes required to achieve this vision.
The United States faced the worst economic downfall in history during the Great Depression. A domino effect devastated every aspect of the economy, unemployment rate was at an all time high, banks were declaring bankruptcy and the frustration of the general public led to the highest suicide rates America has ever encountered. In the 1930’s Franklin D Roosevelt introduced the New Deal reforms, which aimed to “reconcile democracy, individual liberty and economic planning” (Liberty 863). The New Deal reforms were effective in the short term but faced criticism as it transformed the role of government and shaped the lives of American citizens.
McElvaine, Robert S. The Depression and New Deal: A History in Documents. New York: Oxford UP, 2000. Print.
Frederick Lewis Allen’s book tells in great detail how the average American would have lived in the 1930’s. He covers everything from fashion to politics and everything in between. He opens with a portrait of American life on September 3, 1929, the day before the first major stock market crash. His telling of the events immediately preceding and following this crash, and the ensuing panic describe a scene which was unimaginable before.