Roosevelt’s Solutions Attempts to Start the Economy

First 100 Days In the first 100 days of Roosevelt’s administration, Congress passed 15 major pieces of legislation.

Dealing with the Banking Crisis The first thing that Roosevelt did was declare a Bank Holiday. People were running to pull their money out of banks, which caused them to fail.

Restoring Faith in the Banks It closed all the banks in the country and allowed only the strong ones to reopen. The ones that were going to fail anyway, never reopened. Roosevelt hoped that this would restore peoples trust in the banks.

Other New Deal Acts Banking Act Federal Securities Act Agricultural Adjustment Act Civilian Conservation Corps National Industrial Recovery Act Created the National Recovery Administration

Financial Reforms Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation – insured bank deposits up to $5000 Securities and Exchange Commission – regulated the stock market

AAA – Agricultural Adjustment Act Paid farmers to grow less crops – this slowed overproduction and prices start to go up.

TVA – Tennessee Valley Authority Built hydroelectric dams that created big lakes, jobs, and brought electricity to a really poor part of the country.

CCC Civilian Conservation Corps Provided jobs for young men building parks and doing conservation projects Kind of like the military They workers got some of the money and some was sent home to their families

CWA / PWA Provided jobs working on public projects. Built parks (Burdette), Schools, Government buildings, Bridges, Roads, and more….

Roosevelt’s Critics Father Charles Coughlin – catholic priest from Detroit Wanted guaranteed annual income and nationalization of the banks Had as many as 40-45 million listeners Eventually shut down because of anti- Semitism

The Old People’s Doctor Dr. Francis Townsend Doctor and health officer from California Proposed a pension plan for the elderly A little like Social Security

The Kingfish Huey Long Governor / Senator from Louisiana He wanted to be President Created “Share our Wealth” clubs across the country Wanted a 100% tax on everything over $1,000,000