In the land of milk and honey, things were not always flowing correctly. Presidents Hoover and Roosevelt took us through a journey where the economy declined and was restored. From 1929-1939 America became depressed, through The Great Depression. On October 24, 1929, Black Thursday, over 10- 16 million shares were traded.
Many people were out of work. People who were still currently employed, wages fell and buying power decreased. People who put their investments on the market were scammed by banks. And those banks were forced to be closed down. Many Americans who were forced to buy on credit fell into debt, and the number of foreclosures and repossessions begin to rise. President Herbert Hoover tried to fix the Great Depression. President Hoover thought the crisis would stop, but after three years the Great Depression became worse.
In 1930, the unemployment averaged. 8.9% that year. Not to mention the increase in homelessness and poverty. Farmers even had to vacate their fields so they would not starve. When the chaos started, many investors demanded banks return their money back, which caused many banks to close their doors (Stock Market Crash). President Hoover tried supporting failing banks and other institutions with government loans.
However, Hoover believed that the government was not responsible to provide jobs or economic relief to the population. In 1932, Democrat Franklin Roosevelt became president. On March 4, 1933, every bank was told to close after the several banking panics. The treasury of the United States did not have enough money to pay the government workers. President Roosevelt made two drastic measures. First, he announced a four-day Bank Holiday. All banks close on this holiday so Congress could pass reform legislation and reopen those banks. President Roosevelt addressed the public over the radio in a series of talks, calling these fireside chats.
Fireside chats are supposed to restore public confidence. When President Roosevelt was president for almost 4 months, his administration passed legislation that dealt with stabilizing industrial and agricultural production. This legislation helped create jobs and speed up recovery on the economy. He was also able to restore the financial system.
President Roosevelt created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to protect depositors’ accounts, and the Securities and Exchange Commission to regulate the stock market and prevent abuses of the kind that led to the 1929 crash. Other programs and institutions that aided in recovery from the Great Depression were also the Tennessee Valley Authority which built dams and hydroelectric projects that controlled flooding and provided electric power and the Works Progress Administration, a permanent jobs program that employed 8.5 million people from 1935 to 1943. From 1933-1939, the economy continued to improve for the next three years. The Federal Reserve decided to increase its requirement for money in reserve. Also, the economy continued to improve and the Great Depression was over in 1939. The Great Depression was marked by the big stock market crash of 1929.
It affected greatly the lives of the people of the United States. President Hoover, in order to counteract the effects of the Depression, established policies which only worked partially and thus did not improve the economic situation that prevailed at the time. President Roosevelt in 1932 that substantial changes were made until 1939 when finally, the depression came to an end.