New Deal Economics Review

Because the New Deal is so important to American History and the Great Depression era in general, I have decided to make a blog post summarizing some of its economic aspects that may be most important.  Hopefully this will help you review.

The economic changes of the New Deal can be separated into two categories: those that helped fund industries and those that supported people. Economic relief came in the form of government grants through various agencies and acts to fund businesses which needed support for economic survival or provide people with the resources they needed for sustenance.One example of an industry supportive act was the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) of 1933, which authorized the president to regulate industry in an attempt to raise prices and stimulate economic recovery after the severe deflation that had come with the economic crash. Besides setting up the Public Works Administration (PWA) which managed public works projects,spending $7 billion and employing millions of men, the NIRA set up the National Recovery Administration (NRA) which would regulate work hours, and wages. The NRA helped over 16 million workers. Another important act was the Emergency Banking Act. In this act the government insured people’s deposits in banks against losses caused by public panic. This greatly contributed to the restoration of the public’s confidence in the nation’s banking system. The two most significant acts that helped people directly were the Social Security Act of 1935, and theFair Labour Standard Act of 1938. The Social Security Act promoted social insurance programs and set up the first national elderly pension scheme so that people of older age did not have to rely solely on their savings. This act also demanded that each state work out a plan for unemployment insurance.The Fair Labor Standards Act limited work hours and raided minimum wage for those who worked in inter-state trade. The weekly work time limit was 40 hours and minimum wage was set at 40 cents an hour. This act protected over 13 million people from being taken advantage of by the large-scale companies for which they worked.

A question I have is, aside from the acts I talked about, what Acts do you all think are the most important to remember?  I ask because there are so very many and while I have some sense of which ones are important, I would love to hear what others have to say.

Sources:  American Pageant Textbook.

              http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal

              my notes