Was the New Deal Effective in Ending the Great Depression? The Great Depression was possibly one of the most influential time periods in American history, sending our country into a huge, seemingly unfixable financial crisis in the 1930s. The stock market had crashed, banks were failing, and farmers were overproducing crops and livestock, resulting in low prices. Combined with the overuse of buying on credit and margin, America’s economy collapsed, leading to massive (about 25%) unemployment and poverty rates. During the Depression, president Franklin Delano Roosevelt (often abbreviated as FDR), began to pass legislation in the hopes of reversing the country’s financial disaster. This “new deal” for America effectively ended the Depression because it created jobs, regulated the stock market, and made banks much safer.
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Roosevelt created three administrations that greatly increased the number of jobs in America. The first two (the Public Works Administration and the Civil Works Administration) performed public works projects, such as building schools, highways and bridges, or parks. However, these administrations gave jobs mainly to men over the age of twenty five. The Civilian Conservation Corp was passed shortly after, which put younger men to work for the National Forestry Service and supplied free food, lodging, and uniforms to 3 million men. All of these legislations created a massive increase in jobs in the United States. FDR also increased the security stock market. A big problem with the pre-Depression stock market was that companies could lie about their successes and sway people to purchase their stocks, which were typically priced higher than what they were worth. The Securities Act and the Securities & Exchange Commission required such companies to provide complete and truthful information to investors, as well as regulating prices, which effectively fixed stock
Roosevelt created three administrations that greatly increased the number of jobs in America. The first two (the Public Works Administration and the Civil Works Administration) performed public works projects, such as building schools, highways and bridges, or parks. However, these administrations gave jobs mainly to men over the age of twenty five. The Civilian Conservation Corp was passed shortly after, which put younger men to work for the National Forestry Service and supplied free food, lodging, and uniforms to 3 million men. All of these legislations created a massive increase in jobs in the United States. FDR also increased the security stock market. A big problem with the pre-Depression stock market was that companies could lie about their successes and sway people to purchase their stocks, which were typically priced higher than what they were worth. The Securities Act and the Securities & Exchange Commission required such companies to provide complete and truthful information to investors, as well as regulating prices, which effectively fixed stock