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Black Tuesday
The stock market crash of 1929 was one of the worst economic downturns in the history of the modern world. As a result, Wall Street was sent in to a panic, while million of investors were completely wiped out. Over the next several years, investments and consumerism would continue to drop, as unemployment rates and business failures skyrocketed. -
Smoot-Hawley Tarrif Act
President Herbert Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tarrif Act, which raised taxes on select imports. Originally, it was supposed to help farmers, but instead imposed tariffs on a variety of other products. As other countries retaliated, a trade war was set off and international trade began to collapse. -
Bank Failure
The failure of the Bank of the United States was the largest bank failure in history at that time, as it was the fourth largest bank in America. As a result, Hoover returned the top income tax rate to 25%. However, the economy still shrank 8.5%, while unemployment rose 8.7%. -
Reconstruction Finance Corporation
Congress created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to lend $2 billion to financial institutions to prevent any further failures. It was eventually authorized by congress to send money to states for relief. -
FDR's New Deal
In November of 1932, Franklin Roosevelt beat Herbert Hoover by a landslide in the Presidential Election. In March of 1933, he launched his New Deal with the Emergency Banking Act, which immediately closed all banks to reduce failures. Many organizations like the CCC, the AAA, FERA and TVAA were all a result of the New Deal. -
Black Sunday
Black Sunday was the worst Dust Storm ever in the United States. For the next 3 years, temperatures throughout the United States would be at record highs, and the majority of the country would experience extremely dry conditions. However, as a result of The New Deal, the economy was showing steady recovery, and unemployment rates were shrinking. -
FDR's Second Term
As Roosevelt went in to his second term, he enacted his third New Deal. With this, he tried to cutback spending as an attempt to reduce debt, but it pushed the economy back into a depression. Instead, he got Congress to enact a $5 billion relief program, establishing the Federal National Mortage Association, and the Fair Labor Standards Act, as well as redoing the AAA. The economy was once again improving, unemployment was down, but the Nation's debt was now around $37 billion. -
The United States and WWII
Although America did not officially enter the war until after Pearl Harbor, in 1941, it began in 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. By 1941, Roosevelt was elected to his third term, as weather patterns in the United States returned to normal, unemployment plummeted to 9%, and the economy increased 17.7%. WWII, although it was a time of loss and fear, pulled America out of one of the darkest times in the country's history, and created one of the most powerful nations in the world.
