1. Unit V: From Boom to Bust Chapters 22-23: The Twenties and Depression

2. Looming Trouble Bubbles Housing Automobiles Consumer machines Farmers The Farm Crisis What factors cause food prices to drop? Would the price support bills vetoed by Coolidge have worked?

3. The Election of 1928 Herbert Hoover elected Why is Hoover elected? Why is the stock market gaining in importance?

4. Causes of the Crash Overspeculation What does this mean? Margin buying Why is this practice so dangerous? How can it be profitable? The Stock Pool What does a stock pool do? Who is gaining money and who is losing it? Do these practices create wealth?

5. The Bubble Bursts The Crash Stocks drop What causes stocks to be worth money? Why do stock prices rise and fall? What the heck is a Dow Jones Industrial Average? Where does the “lost” money go?

8. What Affects Stock Price? Stock Prices Rise When… –Earnings are above expectations –Competitors do well –Competitors collapse –Government subsidizes –Taxes fall –International action boosts trade –Stock Prices Rise Stock Prices Fall When… –Earnings are below expectations –Competitors do badly –Government investigates –Government regulates –Taxes rise –Scandal occurs –International action halts trade –Stock Prices Fall

9. The Great Depression Unequal Distribution of Wealth Why is this a problem in many economies? Why is the middle class, formerly so strong, now weakened? Why doesn’t the government step in and redistribute this wealth? The Hawley-Smoot Tariff Why do high tariffs hurt the United States rather than helping it? What does the United States suffer as a direct (domino) effect?

10. Causes of The Great Depression Easy Credit and Overproduction What happens to all the people paying in installments? The Banking System Why are banks vulnerable to the Depression? Why are people suddenly afraid of banks? The Domino Effect How does the interdependency of the nation’s economy now help to destroy it?

11. Life In Hard Times Specter of Unemployment Luxuries and Necessities Why do some luxuries vanish while others stay common? Films? Refrigerators? What do people do to cope? Unemployment at 25% by 1932 Homelessness Hoovervilles (shantytowns) Who do Americans blame when the economy fails? Psychological Effects on Depression generation?

12. The Rural Crisis The Irony of History Starving to Death, Surrounded by Food Why can’t food get to the people who need it? How do distribution problems lock the nation in Depression? Drought Strikes How do farmers fight the cycle of mortgage and foreclosure? Why are farmers locked in a cycle of overproduction? The Dust Bowl What human activities lead to this ecological crisis? Where do the farmers of the Great Plains go?

13. The Elections of 1930 Rugged Individualism Why does Hoover want to use limited means to assist the economy? Hoover’s Dam Project Why was this viewed as acceptable? Reconstruction Finance Corporation What’s Hoover trying to do with this? Violence and the Bonus Army Why aren’t there more calls for violent action against the government? Effect on Hoover?

14. Roosevelt Takes Office The Hundred Days What might have happened politically if Roosevelt had not acted with the power of the government? What does Roosevelt mean about fearing fear itself? A Bank Holiday The Emergency Banking Relief Act What cycle is Roosevelt breaking? Why do people trust the government to determine a bank’s solvency? Define: solvency Why are the fireside chats effective?

15. Going Off the Gold Standard Roosevelt Decides What backs the dollar now? Why does Roosevelt decide to do this? What does he want to create?

16. The New Deal The “Three R’s” of the New Deal. Relief The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) What immediate problem does the Corps address? What future problems might it prevent? Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) Direct relief to cities and states More inflation!

17. Spurring Economic Recovery The Civil Works Administration (CWA) Harry Hopkins advocates work, not handouts Why is this more appealing to the government? Why is it more appealing to the American people? The TVA and the PWA, or, One Dam Thing After Another Tennessee Valley Authority Why are so many government programs focused on dams? Why would anyone oppose them?

18. Housing and Agricultural Recovery Recovery The Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) Why is this agency founded? How does it save homes? The Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) Why must food be destroyed, rather than shipped to those too poor to buy food? Why is it important to pay farmers to allow land to lie fallow? The National Recovery Administration (NRA) Sets prices and minimum wages What’s the problem with this idea?

19. Financial Reform Reform Bank and Stock Market Reform The Glass-Steagall Act The FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) Requires banks to insure their deposits. Why is this so important? Separates commercial and investment banks (but who cares?) The Federal Securities Act SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) Requires companies to inform investors of their financial status

20. FDR vs. The Supreme Court The Nine Old Men Why is Roosevelt having trouble with the Supreme Court? Why do they disagree with him? What is Roosevelt’s answer? Why doesn’t it work? The Aftermath: Limits to Power What effect did Roosevelt’s attack on the court have on him? What effect did it have on the Court? Why does the Court yield?

21. Everyone’s a Critic Huey Long and Charles Coughlin Long: Guarantee homes and incomes Problems with this plan? Coughlin: Nationalize banks and utilities Problems with Coughlin?

22. The Second New Deal Works Progress Administration (WPA) How is this different from the CWA? What do critics say about it? The Social Security Act Who does the SSA help? Who funds it? The Rural Electrification Administration (REA) Why is this necessary? What does it save?

23. Labor Unions The Wagner Act (NLRB) Right of labor to organize reaffirmed What can the NLRB do to businesses? American Federation of Labor splits Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) What’s the difference between these two? Why are “sit-down” strikes more effective than earlier strikes?

24. Impact of the New Deal Seven Consequences The Federal Government Gains Power Reforms and Federal agencies endure The President Gains Power Why does FDR especially have this effect? Deficit Spending Becomes an accepted practice rather than an emergency-only measure Federal Social Programs Self-sufficiency or welfare state? Concern for Workers NLRB founds modern labor laws Conservation Gains Anti-Dust Bowl measures taken Renewal of Faith in Democracy America does not try radical government experiments