THE GREAT DEPRESSION

The crash of 1929, like the current global economic crisis, came after a prolonged period of economic growth.
October 24, 1929, known as Black Thursday, marked the first day of the crash with panic selling ensuing on the Dow Jones.

EFFECTS OF THE CRASH

Bankruptcies and skyrocketing unemployment spread from the US to every country in the world, except the USSR, where production continued to expand after the devastation of the Wars of Intervention (1918-1922). The Soviet Union was relatively unaffected by the Crash, firstly because it was a planned economy and not dependent on speculation, and secondly because, in any case, it had been more or less isolated from the world economy. The Great Depression lasted into the late 1930s with 14 million unemployed in the US alone, most with little means of support until Roosevelt’s New Deal was brought in.

THE FIRST NEW DEAL

1932 Roosevelt is elected president
1933 First Hundred Days: Congress and Roosevelt establish many New Deal agencies, including CCC, FERA, CWA, AAA, TVA, and PWA Twenty-First Amendment is ratified
1934 Congress creates Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

The Second New Deal
1934 Indian Reorganization Act (IRA)
1935 Works Progress Administration (WPA) National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) Social Security Act
1936 Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act Roosevelt is reelected
1937 United States Housing Authority (USHA)
1938 Second Agricultural Adjustment Act Fair Labor Standards Act

THE DEMISE OF THE NEW DEAL

• 1936 Butler v. United States ruling
• 1937 Roosevelt initiates court-packing scheme Roosevelt Recession begins
• 1939 Congress passes the Hatch Act

KEYNESIAN ECONOMICS

An economic theory of total spending in the economy and its effects on output and inflation

Shanty towns are comprised of poor people living in improvised residences which are made from scrap materials: often corrugated metal, plywood and sheets of plastic. It is a slum settlement also known as a squatter settlement.