Why Did The Great Depression Changed America

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Prior to the Great Depression, the Federal Reserve Board was created and in 1913 it was meant to act as a lender to prevent bank failures. It acted as a sort of guard for the banks. In the years before the Stock Market Crash, the Federal Reserve Board made market interest rates and low reserve requirements that were beneficial to large banks. Surprisingly, money was becoming abundant in the US. The Federal Reserve board finally realised they could no longer continue what they had been doing. They were allowing customers to only pay 10% and the additional 90% at a later time. They were losing too much and regaining too little. The Stock Market finally crashed and the bank failures were on the rise. Because banks were uninsured when they failed all their customers money was gone as well. This combined with the stock market crash led to the stagnation of purchasing during the Great Depression. This in turn led to a decrease in employment. Unemployment reached an all-time high of 25%. Instead of merely watching President Hoover proposed the Hawley-Smoot Tariff, which was actually not beneficial whatsoever. This raised tariffs, when he should have lowered them. The Great Depression ruffled the …show more content…

And although the changes were mainly economic, the Great Depression highly changed America’s social fabric. Under FDR, American’s burdens were lessened and life improved. Programs for the arts were set up and many radio talents began cropping up. Radio voices such as Huey Long and Father Coughlin began speaking out against the President. Under FDR and his campaign, the CCC was created. This allowed young men to work creating millions of jobs and then send their pay off to their parents to help at home. FDR’s 100 days plan helped retrieve many that were economically unstable get back on their feet again. The most popular being the creation of the FDIC which insured banks so that their customer’s savings could be

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