Great_Depression

Great Depression The Great Depression and the New Deal. In 1932 almost 1500 banks failed, 32,00 businesses closed their doors and one-fourth of the labor force in the United States was unemployed. In that same year Franklin Delanore Roosevelt was elected president. He took office in 1933 with the economy and the nation in a severe depression. For the first three years of the Great Depression the government did very little to help the economy to recover. This all changed when FDR and his democratic administration took control. This administration initiated the "New Deal." This program brought together the federal and the state governments. The states received federal grants, which provided funding for such programs as public works projects, housing assistance, aid to families with dependent children, unemployment compensation and many other programs. These programs helped to eventually pull the economy and the nation out of the Great Depression. The main question is why the democratic administration and FDR felt these programs would work, and why they felt such a dramatic change in the role of the government was needed. For the answer we must turn to an economist by the name of John Maynard Keynes. He developed an economic theory that said that the forces of supply and demand government, farmers, depression, people, great, economy, credit, steinbeck, small, programs, everything, took, public, produce, new, longer, livestock, land, future, feed, drought, deal, began, because, almost, administration, years, worst, work, tractors, today, thus, step, states, slowly, should, serious, seen, same, said, roosevelt, result, recession, put, purchase, projects, products, percent, out, off