Fireside Chat 1 Summary

The Great Depression is known as a severe global economic recession that affected America greatly. During the Great Depression, the greatest challenge was the banking crisis, which involved mistrust in the financial institutions, causing a rapid increase in Americans to withdraw their money rather than risk leaving it in the banks. In the document “Fireside Chat 1: On the Banking Crisis (March 12, 1933), University of Virginia-Miller Center”, President Roosevelt discusses the banking situation and states, “They had used the money entrusted to them in speculations and unwise loans. This was of course not true in the vast majority of our banks, but it was true in enough of them to shock the people for a time into a sense of insecurity and to put them into a frame of mind where they did not differentiate but seemed to assume that the acts of a comparative few had tainted them all.” Roosevelt believed that, even though not all banks were a part of this

Roosevelt took it upon himself to calm the people down using a radio station called “Fireside Chats”, where he would inform the American public about his initiatives and address the nation’s situations. To comfort the people, Roosevelt agreed that the banks were to blame for this incident, which gained the attention of many furious families. The nation’s condition is not adequate. The economy collapsed as a result of the financial chaos brought on by numerous bank failures. Less money and higher borrowing costs led to lower spending on necessities, which in turn pushed businesses to reduce production, lay off employees, and lower prices. The sudden collapse of the money supply led to a series of issues. After the money disappeared, individuals lost their houses and jobs and became infuriated. Prior to the Great Depression, obtaining the money that was needed required a lot of