In the first few years of the Great Depression, over 10,000 banks failed. Many people lost their life savings. Some people went from being rich to having nothing. The U.S. government did little at the time to help the banks survive. The entire world economy was struggling at the time of the Great Depression. The U.S. had loaned billions of dollars to its allies recovering from World War I. As these countries struggled, they could not pay back the U.S. A new law called the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act was passed in 1930. It placed high tariffs (taxes) on imports. This hampered trade with other countries and helped to slow down the …show more content…
Perhaps the most important new law was the Social Security Act. This act (through a payroll tax) provided retirement for the elderly, assistance to the disabled, and unemployment insurance. It is still a major part of the government today. Other New Deal programs that impact our lives today include banking reform (like FDIC insurance which keeps your money at the bank safe), stock market regulations (to keep companies from lying about their profits), farm programs, housing programs, and laws protecting and regulating unions. In Roosevelt’s first 100 days of being president, he signed 14 new bills into law. This time became known as Roosevelt's Hundred Days (Hill and Wang,