The New Deal tried to re-build the economy by using the Emergency Banking Act, which aimed to help solve the financial crisis after the Wall Street Crash. Many people feared of loosing all their money so began to take out all the money from the banks. The act forced banks to remain closed for four days. Banks had lost too much money they had to remain closed. Roosevelt sent a message in one of his broadcast to end the panic and take the money back to the banks. The aim of the Securities Act was to bring the Wall Street Crash under control and rebuild confidence in USA Businesses. The Securities Act forced companies giving out new shares to provide full information about the company to the public. This Act was followed up in 1934 by another Securities act which established securities and exchange to control the stock market. Its aim was to regain further confidence in USA businesses.
The New Deal never solved the underlying economic problems and the US economy took longer to recover than most European countries. Confidence remained low. Throughout the 1930s Americans only spent and invested about 75% of what they had before 1929. When Roosevelt cut the New Deal budget in 1937, the country went back into recession.
The Agriculture Adjustment Act (AAA) aimed to stop farmers overproduces food. This would force prices up and make farmers earn more money. The government were given the power to destroy surplus food and give farmers compensation for this. Cotton farmers were told to plough their crops into the ground, the government slaughtered animals that would increase this overproduction of meat stocks, and also agree with farmers the sensible level of food production. Although the New Deal did a lot to help agriculture, it helped large firms the most and the problems of ‘dustbowl’ continued.
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) made sure that food was given as well as shelter in the countryside. Work was provided for unemployed men less than 25 years of age to work on projects they were given a dollar a week for fish farming, clearing footpaths to strengthen riverbanks against flooding them also planted trees. The Civilian Conservation Corps provided jobs for 2.5 million men. The New Deal was accused of giving jobs out just for the sake of it. Unemployment did not vanish; 6 million were still unemployed in 1941. Only when the USA entered the war, only then the unemployment problem was solved.
The New Deal created millions of jobs, projects such as the Tennessee Valley Authority helped encourage the industry to come to the Valley and try to regenerate agriculture.
The New Deal aimed to create a partnership between government and Industry to get rid of Child labour, long hours and Low pay by introducing the National Insurance Recovery Act which set up employment code with the government. Companies that followed the orders were given favours by the government to gain contracts in industry. The National Insurance Recovery Act promised to guarantee workers fair wages and conditions.
The New Deal was a success as the Federal Government had got involved for the first time which helped a lot. Acts such as the WPA and the PWA provided relief for the economy and helped the unemployed. The AAA helped agriculture and the Banking Act and the Securities Act helped solve the financial crisis which took place after the Wall Street Crash. The National Insurance Recovery Act improved working conditions for workers and promised to guarantee workers fairer wages. However, the problem of ‘dustbowl’ continued, unemployment did not go away, most New Deal laws were designed to help women rather than men and the New Deal had a lot of opposition. It was the war that finally solved the problem of unemployment.
