The Great Depression
c/notes
ERA DEFINED
 Depression 1929-1941:
 Crash of stock market
 Great Depression
 Dust Bowl
 New Deal
 Expansion of the Federal government
 Relief, Reform, Recovery
SOLVENCY OF LONG-TERM
ENTITLEMENT PROGRAMS
 Entitlement Programs (government programs providing
benefits to members of specified groups)
 Solvency – (in this context this term refers to the idea that
assets are greater than liabilities)
 Social Security – According to the Brookings Institute this
entitlement program will likely run out of money sooner than
expected.
 Medicare – According to the Brookings Institute this
entitlement program will likely run out of money sooner than
anticipated.
IMPACT OF PHYSICAL AND HUMAN
GEOGRAPHIC FACTORS
 The Dust Bowl
 Human factors – many farmers had misused the land (over
planting, not rotating crops); millions of acres of farmland
became useless; hundreds of thousands of people were forced to
leave their homes
 Physical factors – years of sustained drought caused the land to
dry up; great clouds of dust and sand were carried by the wind
(where the name “Dust Bowl” came from)
EFFECTS OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION
ON THE U.S. ECONOMY AND SOCIETY
 Widespread unemployment – by 1933
unemployment was at 25% (according to Bureau
of Labor Statistics).
 Deportation and repatriation of people of
European and Mexican heritage – in the 1930s,
the U.S. government looked for ways to ease the
country's financial hardship. In order to make
more jobs available, the government deported
many people of European and Mexican heritage.
NEW DEAL POLICIES AND ITS OPPONENTS' APPROACHES
TO RESOLVING THE ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF THE GREAT
DEPRESSION
 Roosevelt
 Introduced higher taxes on the rich
 Believed if it was good for business, then it was good for America
 New Deal divided into three parts (Relief, Reform, and Recovery)
 Opponents
 Believed too generous to the corporate interests
 Confiscate any personal fortune over $3 million and use this
money to give each family in America
 Promised a national minimum wage, old age pensions, and cheap
food for the poor (opinions of Huey Long)
VARIOUS NEW DEAL AGENCIES AND
PROGRAMS
 FDIC – Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
 SEC – Security and Exchange Commission – regulate the
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stock markets and businesses
SSA – Social Security Administration – retirement savings
Expectation that government should step in during economic
crises or when the people are suffering
AAA – Agriculture Adjustment Act – drastic measure to raise
agricultural prices by limiting the surplus/supply
TVA – Tennessee Valley Authority – brings electrical power
to poverty-stricken rural areas of Tennessee, Mississippi,
Alabama and other states; also provided jobs to the area.
CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES RAISED BY FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT POLICY CHANGES DURING TIMES OF
SIGNIFICANT EVENTS
 Great Depression – Roosevelt’s attempt to increase the
number of Supreme Court justices from 9 to 13 would have
created a shift in the “separation of powers” and “checks and
balances”