Great Depression Outline

The United States government attempted to use several different methods in solving the problems caused by the great depression during the 1930’s. President Hoover’s way of thinking was that over time the economy would repair itself but soon realized this was not an option. Roosevelt however took a more tactical approach proposing his New Deal plan to resolve the depression, and this was composed of what was known as the three R’s, relief, reform, and recovery. This directly helped solve the primary issues of the depression and, given time, this plan proved to be highly successful and provided a necessary fix for a desperate nation.

Problems: Economy: stock market crash, unemployment, debt, tariffs, banks

Non-economic: homelessness, agricultural

How’s: Relief- Emergency Banking Act, FERA, FDIC; helped to solve the immediate problems that needed to be dealt with first such as widespread poverty

Reform- SEC, AAA, CCC; this helped with banking and economic issues as well as farming nd labor. These were essential to reform in order to help end the depression and prevent such a thing from recurring in the future

Recovery- TVA, NRA, Social Security, Wagner Act- These acts also helped in preventing future issues and provide assistance for people who could not provide it for themselves. These acts came from examining past issues to prevent them from happening again.

Success: The New Deal was quite successful in a preventative manner and focused on making sure a similar incident was less likely to occur in the future. It was not totally successful in resolving the Depression however and it took several more years after the introduction of the New Deal for the country to be somewhat stable once again. National hope was restored and confidence was built by Roosevelt’s efforts.

Succesful Acts:

Federal Securities Act and SEC

Conclusion: In conclusion the primary method of government action was FDR’s New Deal which dealt mainly with relief, reform, and recovery of the nation. It helped to solve economic problems as well as social issues created by the Depression. It was mainly successful in its preventative measures and did not exactly provide immediate relief for many of the nation’s problems; however it restored national hope and confidence in government.