Unit 9 Vocab Quiz Flashcards
Securities and Exchange Commission
an agency created in 1934, which monitors the stock market and enforces laws regulating the sale of stocks and bonds
Social Security Act
a law enacted in 1935 to provide aid to retirees, the unemployed, people with disabilities, and families with dependent children
Packing the Courts
a legislative initiative proposed by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt to add more justices to the U.S. Supreme Court to obtain favorable rulings regarding New Deal legislation
Works Progress Administration
an agency created in 1935, employing millions
of unemployed people (mostly unskilled men) to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads
First Hundred Days
when Congress followed Roosevelt’s lead by passing an incredible fifteen separate bills which, together, formed the basis of the New Deal
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
an agency created in 1933 to insure individuals’ bank accounts, protecting people against losses due to bank failures
Speakeasy
a place where alcoholic drinks were sold and consumed during Prohibition
Teapot Dome Scandal
secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall’s secret leasing of oil-rich public land to private companies in return for money and land
Buying on Margin
the purchasing of stocks by paying only a small percentage of the price and borrowing the rest
Rugged Individualism
the idea that each individual should be able to help themselves out, and that the government does not need to involve itself in people’s economic lives nor in national economics in general
National Industrial Recovery Act
a law enacted in 1933, to establish codes of fair practices for industries and to promote industrial growth
Quota System
a system that sets limits on how many immigrants from various countries a nation will admit each year
Fireside Chats
a series of thirty evening radio addresses given by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt between 1933 and 1944
Installment Plan
an agreement in which a purchaser pays over an extended time, without having to put down much money at the time of purchase
Dust Bowl
the region including Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico, that was made worthless for farming by drought and dust storms of the 1930s
Agricultural Adjustment Act
a law enacted in 1938, that restricted agricultural production by paying farmers subsidies not to plant part of their land and to kill off excess livestock
Speculation
an involvement in risky business transactions in an effort to make a quick or large profit
Socialism
an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and co-operative management of the economy
Prohibition
the period from 1920-1933 during which the 18th Amendment forbidding the manufacturing and sale of alcohol was in force in the United States
Harlem Renaissance
a flowering of African-American artistic creativity of the 1920’s
Bootlegger
a person who smuggled alcoholic beverages into the United States during Prohibition
Flapper
one of the free thinking young women who embraced the new fashions and urban attitudes of the 1920s
Hoovervilles
shanty towns built by homeless people during the Great Depression
New Deal
president Franklin Roosevelt’s program to alleviate the problems of the Great Depression, focusing on relief for the needy, economic recovery, and financial reform
