New Deal

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New Deal

Top left: Signing of the Tennessee Valley Authority Act, 1933 Top right: President Franklin D. Roosevelt Bottom: Works Progress Administration public mural
Location	United States
Type	Economic program
Cause	Great Depression
Organized by	President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Outcome	Job creation, social security, financial reforms, and agricultural support Expanded labor rights and unions Political power shifts to Democratic Party's New Deal coalition

This article is part of a series about Franklin D. Roosevelt
Early life Family Paralysis State Senator Secretary of the Navy 1920 Cox–Roosevelt campaign 44th Governor of New York Governorship 32nd President of the United States First & second terms, 1933–1941 Third & fourth terms, 1941–1945 Timeline Transition Inaugurations first second third fourth First term First 100 days New Deal Glass-Steagall Act WPA Social Security SEC Fireside Chats Second term Supreme Court Packing National Recovery Act 1937 recession March of Dimes Third term World War II Attack on Pearl Harbor Infamy Speech Atlantic Charter Japanese Internment Tehran Conference United Nations D-Day Second Bill of Rights G.I. Bill Harlan F. Stone Supreme Court nomination Wiley Rutledge Supreme Court nomination Fourth term Yalta Conference Declining health Death and state funeral Presidential campaigns 1932 primaries convention campaign election 1936 primaries convention campaign election 1940 primaries convention campaign election 1944 primaries convention campaign election Electoral history Legacy Criticism Foreign policy New Deal critics Civil rights record Presidential Library Memorial Depictions
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The New Deal was a series of domestic programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, with the aim of addressing the Great Depression, which began in 1929. Roosevelt introduced the phrase upon accepting the 1932 Democratic presidential nomination, and won the election in a landslide over Herbert Hoover, whose administration was viewed by many as doing too little to help those affected. Roosevelt believed that the depression was caused by inherent market instability, and that massive government intervention was necessary to rationalize and stabilize the economy.

During Roosevelt's first hundred days in office and continuing until 1935, he introduced a series of initiatives termed the "First New Deal". The programs focused on what historians refer to as the "3 R's": relief for the unemployed and for the poor, recovery of the economy back to normal levels, and reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression.^[1] Roosevelt declared a four-day bank holiday and implemented the Emergency Banking Act, which enabled the Federal Reserve to insure bank deposits; this was made permanent with Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Other laws established the National Recovery Administration (NRA), which worked with employers and labor to establish codes of fair practice in industry, and formed the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to protect investors from fraudulent and unfair stock exchange practices. The Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) attempted to raise incomes in rural areas by controlling production. Public works were undertaken in order to find jobs for the unemployed (25 percent of the workforce when Roosevelt took office): the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enlisted young men for building in National Parks and tree planting in National Forests, and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) provided electricity generation and other development in the drainage basin of the Tennessee River.

Although the First New Deal helped many find work and restored confidence in the financial system, by 1935 stock prices were still below pre-Depression levels and unemployment still exceeded 20 percent. From 1935 to 1938, the "Second New Deal" introduced further legislation and additional agencies which focused on job creation and on improving the conditions of the elderly, workers, and the poor. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) supervised the construction of bridges, libraries, parks, and other facilities, while also investing in the arts; the National Labor Relations Act guaranteed employees the right to organize trade unions; and the Social Security Act introduced pensions for senior citizens and benefits for the disabled, mothers with dependent children, and the unemployed. The Fair Labor Standards Act prohibited "oppressive" child labor, and enshrined a 40-hour work week and national minimum wage.

In 1938, the Republican Party gained control of Congress and joined with conservative Democrats to block further New Deal legislation, and some of it was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The New Deal produced a political realignment, reorienting the Democratic Party's base to the New Deal coalition of labor unions, blue-collar workers, big city machines, racial minorities (most importantly African-Americans), white Southerners, and liberal intellectuals. The realignment crystallized into the New Deal coalition which dominated presidential elections into the 1960s, and the opposing conservative coalition largely controlled Congress in domestic affairs from 1937 to 1964. Historians still debate the effectiveness of the New Deal programs, although most accept that full employment was not achieved until World War II began in 1939.