Alphabet Soup - New Deal Legislation

RELIEF - solves immediate problems (helping the unemployed)
  • Emergency Banking Relief Act of 1933 - gave President power to regulate banking transactions and foreign exchange. Bank holiday, then reopening of banks. (FDR's "fireside chats" on the radio told people it was safe to put their money back in banks)
  • FERA (Federal Emergency Relief Act): Led by Harry L. Hopkins. Granted $3 billion to the states for direct dole payments, preferably for wages on works projects.
  • WPA (Works Progress Administration): part of FERA (Harry Hopkins). "boondoggling" - making up work. Payed workers directly from government for public works. Hired people in fine arts like artists, writers, and musicians!!!
  • NYA - National Youth Administration
  • CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps): most popular New Deal agency. Hired 18-25 year old single men for conservation jobs (worked with US army and US Forest services). They had to send money back to their parents to stimulate the economy.

RECOVERY - recovery of economy during the Depression

  • PWA (Public Works Administration) -SoInterior Harold L. Ickes. $4 billion for projects like buildings and highways. Grand Coulee Dam built.
  • RFC (Reconstruction Finance Corporation) - continued from Hoover's time. Gave money to insurance companies, banks, big business in hopes of trickle down. Ickes was also in charge of this.
  • AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Administration) - "aritificial scarcity" to create "parity prices for basic commodities. Government payed growers to reduce crop acreage money for payments raised by taxing processors of farm products. Killed in 1936 by Supreme court decision Butler vs. US. Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1936 - paid farmers to plant soil-conserving crops or leave fields fallow in the name of "conservation." 2nd AAA 1938: if farmers observed acreage restrictions on cotton and wheat, they'd be elligible for parity payments.
  • NRA (National Recovery Administration) - Codes of fair practice to promote "fair competition" (maximum hours, minimum wage) and right to collective bargaining. Killed by 1935 Schechter case (Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional for federal government to regulate local businesses not involved in interstate commerce. => Wagner Act 1935: created National Labor Relations Board to reassert labor's right to organize and bargain collectively.
  • FHA (Federal Housing Administration) - lent money to states or communities to improve dwelling or make new ones. Shrank slums.

REFORM - prevent future economic crises

  • FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) (Glass-Steagall Act) - insured individual deposits up to $5000 to end bank failures.
  • Social Security Act - retired workers (65+) received regular monthly payments financed by payroll tax on employers and employees (you had to be employed to get coverage), unemployment compensation plan, aid to handicapped.
  • TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) - Senator George W. Norris 1933 - agency to develop Tennessee River for reforming power monopoly and giving people jobs. Most revolutionary New Deal agency.
  • SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) - Monitored stock market to prevent fraud and inside trading.