Public Works AdministrationXavier and Nick

●Under the New Deal of 1933

○National Industrial RecoveryAct

○Headed by Secretary ofInterior: Harold Ickes

○Originally called: FederalEmergency Administration ofPublic Works

●Recovery of Economy

○"Priming the Pump"

●Relief of Unemployment (Indirectly)

○Purchased contracts fromprivate Construction Firms

●$6 billion spent in order to build:

○Dams, Bridges, Hospital

○11,428 road projects

●Greatest achievements included:

○Triborough Bridge

○Lincoln Tunnel

○Grand Coulee Dam

○Electrification of Penn Railroad

●Generally successful aside from

○Housing projects

○Technical Complications

●Provided relief of unemployment andrecovery of the economy

●Rivaled with the WPA

○Hired Workers Directly

○Much smaller scale

○Worked with local government

○Hired people directly to do theworks, while the PWA madecontracts with privatecompanies who then hiredemployees

●Abolished in June 1943

○Moved into the FWA

○FDR focused his effortstowards World War II

Tennessee Valley AuthorityAjay/______

  • Tennessee Valley 1933
  • Economic Depression/ Widespread Poverty/ Underdeveloped
  • Floods and poor soil for farmers
  • Powerful rivers showed potential for development
  • Sen. George Norris of NE - big advocate of TVA Creation
  • Independent corporation to report to the President and Congress
  • Relief for people of Tennessee Valley
  • Recovery of economy in the area
  • Goals:
  • Cheaper Electricity for All
  • Better Farming Techniques(Education)
  • Nitrate Production(Munitions and Fertilizers)
/
  • Flood Control/Improved River Navigation
  • Reforested Lands
  • Improved Habitat for Wildlife
  • Led by a 3 - person board
  • Disagreed on TVA’s purpose (originally)
  • Today
  • Makes no profit, takes no taxpayer $$$
  • Provides power to 9 million customers
  • Largest public power company in US
  • Current Mission
  • Improve Air Quality
  • Increase Nuclear Production
  • Increase Energy Efficiency

SOCIAL SECURITY ACT (1935)Dhruv and Dan

Relief

Overview

•Enacted August 14th, 1935

•Passed under Franklin D. Roosevelt (1st Term)

•Created the Social Security system

The Need

•Dangers of the American lifestyle included

•Old age

•Poverty

•Unemployment

•FDR wants to improve the American condition during his presidency

The Second New Deal

•Social Security Act passed under Second New Deal

The Act

•Gave benefits to retired workers

•Money given to states for assistance to elderly

•Unemployment insurance

•Aid to Families with Dependent Children

•Maternal and Child Welfare

•Public Health Services

•Blind and Physically Handicapped

Court Cases

•Steward Machine Company v. Davis

•Helvering v. Davis

Results and Lasting Effects

•Combined with Medicare tax to form FICA tax

•People feel secure in their old age

•Fostered dependence on the government

•Benefits may also apply to widow(er)s, children, and the handicapped

•The SSA Today

•The SSA’s trust fund will run out of money if nothing is done

•Regarded as a “third rail” of politics – no one wants to touch it

•As soon as one party changes anything, they will lose the senior citizen vote as they are dependent on SSA benefits

Securities and Exchange Commission (1934)Neha/Mehak

What

● Law enforcement agency that prevented the manipulation of stock prices

● Goals: Protect investors, maintain orderly and efficient markets, facilitate capital formation

● Protect against fraud and maintain fair dealing

● Act as a watchdog

● Reform

How

● Securities Act (1933) and Securities Exchange Act (1934)

● Franklin D. Roosevelt appoints Joseph P. Kennedy as inaugural chairman of the SEC

● 5 Divisions

Results/Lasting Effects

● Helped protect against fraud

● Enforced security laws

● Forced information about stocks to be public

● Current chairperson: Mary Jo White

● Office located in Washington D.C.

● Madoff investment scandal (2008)

○ Bernard L. Madoff

○ Charged for securities fraud

○ Made false filings under the SEC

Abdullah/______

National Recovery Administration

Why?

●Businesses’ incomes are at an all-time low

●Many people view the US market as unstable

What?

●It was a New Deal Agency set up by FDR in 1933

●Goal - eliminate “cut-throat competition”

How?

●Implemented through the National Industrial Recovery Act

●Businesses, government officials and consumer groups created codes

Results?

●Labor conditions improved in some industries

●Hugh Johnson was replaced by Donald Richberg

●Businesses were able to pass codes that were in self-interest, lost public support

●Was deemed unconstitutional in 1935

Effects!

●Helped unionization movement

●Many of the codes created were passed as legislation after NRA was terminated

Works Progress Administration: 1935-1943Taslim/Pavi

A)Need:

  • Great Depression – 25% unemployment in 1933
  • Bad economy – if people make money, they are more likely to spend it
  • Work Relief is more beneficial than direct relief
  • Teaches skills, maintains work ethic, and maintains morale

B)What it was

  • Under national lead, Harry Hopkins (at the time it was enacted), employed able-bodied adults
  • Gave work through public works projects
  • Construction of parks, roads, buildings, etc.
  • Employed over 8 million  peak year = 3 million (1938)
  • Goal  have one employed breadwinner per family

C)Implementation

  • Established through Emergency Relief Appropriation Act and shaped by Keynesian Harry Hopkins

D)Results

  • Relief for millions of unemployed citizens
  • Recovery of economy
  • “pump-priming” economy – Keynesian theory
  • Stimulated private businesses to hire people and put money into economy

E)Lasting Effects

  • Successes – created hope for economy and lasting infrastructure
  • Failure – promoted political patronage
  • Hatch Act passed to counter this – can’t use public funding for electoral purposes
  • Criticisms – inefficient in long run low pay for 18 months, instilled poor work habits

Agricultural Adjustment ActGreg and Shan

  • Relief and Recovery
  • Goal: Raise Crop prices
  • Paid farmers subsidies for not farming
  • Wanted to bring prices back to pre-WWI period
  • “Parity” levels of farmer income
  • Overall reduction in surplus farm products
  • Limits on wheat, corn, cotton, tobacco, milk
  • Commodity Credit Corporation
  • Established in 1933 to ensure stability of farmers’ prices and income
  • Makes price-supporting loans and purchases of specific commodities.
  • Process: How Prices Rose
  • Treasury issues cash bonuses to Farmers; money provided by “processing taxes”
  • Industries which turned raw farm products into market goods
  • Processors handed on taxes to consumers through higher prices (benefit for farmers)
  • Result:
  • $1,500,000,000 was paid to farmers by 1936
  • Did attribute to the rise in crop prices
  • Severe droughts between 1933-1936 were a major contributor to this change in prices

Fair Labor and Standards Act Youssef and Kedar

  • Drafted by: Senator Hugo Black in 1932
  • Passed in: 1938 after torturous legislative battles
  • Why it was needed:
  • NRA codes shut down
  • No regulation of business to ensure fair working conditions
  • Why 1938?
  • The “Big Switch” allowed Roosevelt to pass New Deal programs without judicial review
  • Final Provisions:
  • Gradual minimum wage increase and workweek decrease
  • 1939-25 cents and 44 hours
  • 1940- 30 cents and 42 hours
  • 1945- 45 cents and 40 hours
  • Min working age of 16
  • Latest Amendment: Section of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
  • Allows for break time for nursing mothers to express milk

Glass SteagallAiyappa and Shivarth

Why was it needed?

  • Needed to stop the run on banks, to separate investment banks and commercial banks, and to restore public confidence in the banking system

What is it?

  • Commercial Banks cannot sell or deal securities that are non-government, invest in non-investment grade securities for themselves, underwrite (accept risk for and guarantee sale) or distribute non-governmental securities (still could underwrite government bonds), share employees with investment banks
  • Only 10% of income could be from securities
  • Applied to commercial Federal Reserve Banks
  • Banks had one year after passage of the law to decide if they were to be investment banks or commercial banks - Had to decide by June 16, 1934

How was it implemented?

  • Passed as a law
  • All commercial banks that were members of the Federal Reserve had to follow these rules (this essentially meant most banks in the country)

Results

  • Successes – Stopped investment with commercial assets (reduced risk) and made sure banks no longer had enough money to gamble and destroy the system
  • Failures - Loopholes discovered quickly
  • Criticisms
  • Some argue that Glass Steagall did not allow global trade - capital amounts needed by major corporations would have been impossible to find without commercial and investment banks sharing funds
  • Many said that bringing Glass Steagall back would force people to turn to shadow banking instead
  • Lasting effects
  • Long-term economic stability
  • Economy grew over the next several decades at a very fast clip
  • Biggest expansion of the American middle class in history

The Critics:

Huey Long and Father Charles CoughlinSam Mongiello

Huey Long: “The Kingfish”

  • Governor of Louisiana and U.S. Senator
  • Populist; fought for the working class and the wealthy
  • Shot and killed by Dr. Carl Weiss in 1936

“Share Your Wealth” Program

  • “Guaranteed citizens a car, a house, a pension and education”
  • Government gave citizens an allowance of no less than 1/3 average family wealth
  • Capital levy tax over $1 million
  • Income no less than $2,000-2,500 annually
  • Limit/regulate work hours and prevent overproduction and leave more time for recreational activities
  • People over 60 received Old Age Pension

Father Charles Coughlin

  • Catholic priest from Detroit, Michigan
  • Was popular radio host in 1930s
  • Criticized FDR
  • Criticized the New Deal
  • Was a fascist and Anti-Semitic

National Union for Social Justice

  • Equal and fair annual pay to all that are capable of work
  • Private ownership of property and used it for public
  • Workers can form unions
  • Government protection and support
  • Property rights were below human rights

Civilian Conservation Corps – A Relief ProgramLyndon Shi and Harjeet Singh

In March of 1933, Franklin Roosevelt was inaugurated into office. The United States was in a dire economic condition, with an unemployment rate of over 25%. Roosevelt had to find a way to provide relief for a suffering nation.

To accomplish this goal, Roosevelt established the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), one of the first New Deal programs. It was a public works project aimed at providing relief to the unemployed.

  • Roosevelt’s Motivation for Establishing the CCC
  • Bring relief to citizens, especially rural unemployed
  • Conservation
  • Keep youth “off the city street corners”
  • Operation and Work
  • Overseen by the army
  • Primary objective – soil conservation and reforestation
  • Other jobs – Digging canals and trenches, building wildlife shelters, restocking rivers/lakes with fish, restoring historic battlegrounds, clearing beaches and campgrounds
  • Results
  • 3 million young men unemployed overall
  • 3 billion trees planted – accounts for more than half the reforestation in the nation’s history
  • 30,000 wildlife shelters built
  • Close to 1 billion fish stocked in rivers/lakes
  • 800 parks built
  • Controversy – racial discrimination
  • Number of blacks chosen to be hired was unfair; segregation; hiring quotas
  • Lasting Effects
  • The army gained experience in managing large numbers of men and enforcing discipline – useful during World War II
  • Ended in 1942