Great Depression Test Flashcards
What was FERA(Federal Emergency Relief Act)?
- Federal money used for relief
* State unemployment agencies to assist in govt program
What was the EBRA(Emergency Bank Relief Act)?
- Bank holiday for credible banks
* America off gold standard, hoarding punishable
What was the CCC(Civilian Conservation Corps)?
- Goal: Employ men
- Provided food, money, education work skills
- Provided jobs for public needs
What was the AAA(Agricultural Adjustment Act)?
- Goal: Eliminate the farm surplus
- Farmers were paid to reduce crop acreage, gov bought surplus and stored it in warehouses
- Lowered Tariff/Processors Tax/Farm interest loans
- Pigs and Cows slaughtered
- Surpreme Court Case: US vs Butler
- Declared unconstitutional
What was NIRA(National Industrial Recovery Act)?
- Goal: Balance interest of big business, labor, and consumer
- Federal codes were enacted to regulate prices, industrial output, and general trade practices.
- Suspended antitrust laws
- Businesses who abided recieved a blue eagle
- Supreme court case Schechter vs US
- Voided by surpreme court
What was the PWA(Public Works Administration)?
Employed people, targeted construction
What was the TVA(Tennessee Valley Authority)?
- Goal: Employ people, address poorest part of US, improve farming, establish electricity and industry
- Powers 7 southern states, largest electricity supplier in US, helped with atomic weapons
What was the GSA(Glass Steagall Act)?
- Goal: Create confidence in banks/ creates less risk in banking industry
- Regulations: Reestablished Federal Reserve with 12 mother banks, FDIC, gauranteed deposits up to $5000, distinguished different types of banks,
What was the SEC(Security and Exchange Commission)?
Government regulation of the stock market.
What was the CWA(Civil Works Administration)?
- Goal: Employ people
* Jobs: Seasonal Work
What was the FCC(Federal Communications Commission)?
- Goal: Eliminate the electricity and radio monopoly
* Regulations: Gov regulated practices of telegraph, radio, and phones.
What was the WPA(Workers Progress Administration)?
Emploed people, targeted creative business sector, lift morale of US
What was the RA(Ressettlement Act)?
Improved conditions for farmers not supported by AAA(dust bow farmers).
What was the SSA(Social Security Administration)?
Financial security for older people, financial aid for disabled people, funded unemployment compensation
What was the NYA(National Youth Administration)?
- Employ men and women, get youth back in school, headed by Lyndon B Johnson
- Jobs for youth
What was the NLRA(Nation Labor Relations Act)?
- Goal: Balance interest of big business, labor, and consumer
- Regulations: Gov creates national labor relations board, it maintains relations between workers and business owners
What was the NHA(National Housing Act)?
Aid forclosure problem.
What was PUHCA(Public Utilities Holding Company Administration)?
- Goal: Aid bankrupt utility companies, natural gas and electricity are deemed necessary aspects of life
- Gov upholds antitrust laws
What was 2AAA(2nd Agricultural Adjustment Act)?
- Goal:Replace AAA
* Same as AAA Accept FCIC and voluntary destruction of livestock
What was the FLSA(Fair Labor Standards Act)?
- Goal: Balance interest of big business, labor, and consumer
- Regulations: Changed minimum wage and work hours, children under 16 cant work
What is inflation?
Upward spending, profits increase, businesses profit. Currency loses some value though.
What is hyperinflation?
Way too much money circulating and spending. Wages up, prices up, currency value down.
What is a recession?
High supply, low demand(surplus). Business, wages, and prices decrease. Layoffs increase. Little spending and circulation.
What is a depression?
Spending almost stops. Businesses bankrupt. Wages and proces drop. Massive unemployment. Gov gets no taxes, banks bankrupt, foreclosure.
What is GNP?
Measures the wealth of a nation. Goods manufactured+services value divided by number of people=GNP. Too much or little is bad, moderate is the goal.
What is an economic indicator?
Events that tools to determine if the stock market goes up or down.
What are the economic indicators?
- Interest Rates
- Technology
- Crisis
- Taxes
- Speculation
- Unemployment
- Oil
- Tariffs
- Housing
What were the causes of the stock market crash?
- Overspending in 1920s-people buying on margin and buying on credit.
- Stock market overvalued in 1920s-No rules, lack of understanding, unknown company profits, market defined by too much selling goods
- Unregulated stock market-Corruption in market, speculation, insider trading,
- Bad Bank structure-No gov regulations, bucket shops, overlending
- Tariff-Surplus of supplies, Hoover raised interest rates
What is speculation?
Corrupt, currently illegal, is when a broker decieves a client by inflating prices of stocks
What is insider trading?
When one person or certain people have privilaged information to use with stocks about a company.
What were Bucket Shops?
A bank where someone would promise a good return rate on money and use the savings of others to make money with interest.
What is buying on margin?
The buyer pays for part of a stock in cash and borrows the rest from the broker, the broker then gets a loan to cover for what they lost to the buyer. It was great money maker if stocks went up.
What was buying on credit?
People buying now and paying later.
What were the causes of the Great Depression?
- Uneven distribution of personal income
- Easy Credit
- Uneven distribution of industrial wealth
- Imbalance of foreign trade
- Stock Market Crash
How did uneven distribution of personal income help cause the Great Depression?
- Worker output increased 32%, while wages only increased 8%. Productivity fell and prices benefitted business owner
- The gov favored big business
- High supply, low demand
- Lower and middle class spent all their money on consumer goods, we needed the rich to spend
How did easy credit help cause the great depression?
People bough on credit alot. People spent more than they could afford, and they could no longer use their wages to buy what they need now.
How did uneven distribution of Indistrial wealth help cause the great depression?
The economy relied on a few industries to hold everything up, if they fell, everything fell.
How did imbalance inforeign trade help cause the Great depression?
- It was harder to pay our WW1 debt with the tariffs.
- Hawley-Smoot tariff made other countries make tariffs for us.
- The US depending on Europe to be their goods
How did the stock market crash help cause the Great Depression?
Buying on margin, corruption, mistreated market
What were Hoover’s policies for the Great Depression?
- Voluntary Plan
- Federal Farm Board
- Hawley Smoot Act
- One Year Moretorium
- POUR
- RFC
What was the Voluntary Plan?
- Hoover asked business leaders not to cut and labor leaders not to ask for higher wages
- Hoover asked governors and mayors to fund contruction and public projects to create jobs and get money flowing
- Hoover got congress to fund public projects as well
What was the Boulder Dam?
A dam funded by congress in CO, it was meant to create jobs and got alot of money flowing. It was later renamed the Hoover Dam
What was the One Year Moretorium?
A delay on reparations and allies debt payments. This was because investors drew their loans from Germany. There was fear the German gov would fall and the world economy slowed with the Moretorium.
What was POUR?
POUR was how Hoover backed up charities. It stood for Presidents Organization for Unemployment Relief. The charities weren’t enough.
What was the RFC?
- Operated mostly in secret, so they didnt upset the nation’s markets
- Handed out money to business owners to create jobs and pay workers
- States could draw 300 million from RFC.
- Gov strengthened Federal home loan Bank system.
What were Hoover’s follies?
- Volunteerism
- Didn’t create federal programs
- Hawley-Smoot Tariff
- Used a General who was cruel to protesters
- Low interest rates
- Corrupt Cabinet
- Black Thursday
- RFC didn’t work
What was Black Tuesday?
16.4 million shares sold, buggest stock market crash. no one bought anything.
What were Hoover’s achievements?
- Strengthened home loan bank
- Balanced budget
- Low income taxes
- Strengthened Federal Loan Bank
- Funded projects like Hoover Dam
What was Hoover’s background?
- Owned business
- From Stanford
- From Iowa, then CA
- Pro-business
What were FDR’s follies?
- NRA
- WPA
- AAA
- American Liberty League
- Townsend, Huey lang, Father Coughlin
What were FDR’s achievements?
- Got money in banks circulating
- CCC
- REA
- FCA
- HOLC
- FDIC
- FERA
- CWA
- PWA
- TVA
What was FDR’s background?
- Grew up in NY
- Gov of NY
- Cousin of Theodore Rossevelt
- Democrat
- Paralyzed legs
- New deal
What were oakies?
Dustbowl farmers seeking a better life in California.(negative term)
What were the Causes of the dust bowl?
- Drought
- Bad farming
- Land had no topsoil
- Science was interrupted when dust blocked the sun
What were Hoovervilles?
Towns of shacks full of homeless people
What were hobos?
Homeless people who train hopped to try and find a job
What was the Bonus Army?
The group of Veterans protesting to ge The Bonus Bill.
What was the first 100 days?
FDR’s first 100 days, where he passed 13 major acts/bills.
What were the fireside chats?
FDR when he addressed America every Sunday on the radio.
What was the Black Cabinet?
The group of African American leaders FDR met with once a month
What was congress majority?
The majority of congress was democrats and they all passed whatever FDR wanted.
What was Pack the courts?
The majority conservative supremem justices, when they stepped down democratic ones were appointed.
What was the Brain Trust?
The republican businessmen who took conflicts to surpreme court because the conservatoves had the majority there.
What were public works?
Public jobs that businessmen loved because they profited.
What is Deficit Spending?
Spending money you don’t techinically have
