new deal lecture USH

1 files changed, 192 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/smith/12_new_deal b/smith/12_new_deal
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e1f0a86
--- /dev/null
+++ b/smith/12_new_deal
@@ -0,0 +1,192 @@
+Europe tumbles when US crashes.
+- Develops fascism, naziism, communism
+
+FDR believed large corporations were to blame for the economic state,
+which could only be solved by an active preseident and a strong govt.
+- American Gov't had a responsibilty to help people in distress
+- passed dozens of measures to promote welfare and economic recovery
+- Not specifically ideological, but a pragmatist
+    - New Deal (ND) was experimental, some programs failed miserably
+
+Herbert Hoover just didn't want to do anything
+- Andrew Mellon wanted to liquidate {real estate, stocks, farmers}
+- Let the capitalist system "purge itself of rottenness"
+- Invited business, agricultural, unions to talk (later)
+    - Encouraged them to stop strikes, maintain employment
+    - "Ineffective cheerleader for capitalism"
+- Provided no direct federal relief
+    - biggest emergency since the Civil War
+- Passed 1932 Revevue Act: huge tax increase
+    - worsened economic slowdown
+    - Pushed "self-reliance" narrative
+        - believed in charities, voluntarism
+- New Dem Congress forced Hoover to Reconstruction Finance Corporation
+    - helped out big banks, railroads
+    - Dems still questioned these policies
+    - Hoover only allowed RFC to make loans to states
+- Hoover did not take it as a sign
+
+Bonus Army March
+- Wanted Congress to pay veterans the 4 million cash bonuses they
+  promised for 1935
+    - It is actually 1932, but the House authorized it (Senate denied)
+    - Veterans with no place to go camped in vacant buildings,
+      shantytown (first nonviolent protestors in US)
+    - Congress paid for train tickets home
+        - William Mitchell, Attorney General, ordered buildings cleared
+            - Secretary of War dispatched soldiers to remove them
+                - Horses, tanks, tear gas
+                - General MacArthur
+                - Soldiers, exceeding orders, burned their encampment
+                - PR disaster for Hoover + Republicasn (heartless)
+- Hoover became tired and poor morale
+    - said he "had no Wilsonian qualities"
+    - terrible, cold speaker
+
+1032 Election: FDR met public demand for change (Hoover lost)
+    - FDR is NY governor
+    - Said his campaign was a "call to arms"
+    - Wanted new ideas and agressive action
+    - Hoover lacked vitality and vision
+
+Roosevelt's First 100 Days
+- Asked for broad power from Congress to respond to the emergency
+- Chicago Tribune, Repub newspaper, praised him
+- Presidency defined by leadership and action
+- He and his advisors wanted to build back the economy and help those in
+  need
+    - "Our greatest primary task is putting people to work" - FDR
+    - Gave farmers money to make less crops
+- 100 First Days: created 50 programs, some of which to become the ND
+- Hundreds of banks were failing
+    - FDR asked Congress to pass "Emergency Banking Relief Act"
+    - 4 day bank holiday to stall the bank collapse
+    - Funded banks to restore confidence
+        - "Safer to keep your money in a reopened bank than in your
+          mattress"
+        - Removed Gold Standard
+    - Glass-Steagall Banking Act
+        - Created Federal Deposit Insurance Incorporation (FDIC) to
+          isnure up to 250K.
+        - Divided savings banks from investment banks. Only investment
+          banks could invest in stock mkt after 1933
+    - Securities Act of 1933 regulated sales of stocks and bonds
+        - Required publicly traded companies to disclose all relevant
+          information
+        - Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) enforces this.
+- Helping the Unemployed and Homeless
+    - Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA) gave money to states for
+      unemployed and homeless
+        - Proved ineffective
+    - First large-scale effort to put people on gov't payroll at good
+      wages: Civil Works Admin.
+    - Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) managed by War Dept. employed
+      unmarried unemployed young men as "Soil Soldiers" ($1/day for no
+      more than 9mo)
+        - Cleared brush, constructed roads, trees, parks, taught farmers
+    - National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) established PWA (sewage
+      plants, dams, highways) and National Recovery Administration (NRA)
+        - NRA set prices, wages, and working standards --- unique for
+          the government in peacetime
+            - NRA codes included fair labor policies (like 40hr/8hr, no
+              child labor, unionization), negotiation policies 
+                - Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional because it
+                  would be a Congressional responsibility
+                    - Some NRA policies had lasting effects like
+                      national minimum wage, workweek
+    - Farm Credit Administration and Agricultural Adjustment Act/Adm
+      (AAA)
+        - FCA bailed out farmers so they didn't lose homes, farms
+        - AAA paid farmers to destroy cotton crop
+            - Pigs were slaughtered and buried
+            - Wheat, cotton, corn production declined, prices rose
+- In the first 100 days, FDR gained the most pulbic support
+    - Most loved by the people
+        - Twice weekly press conferences won over journalists
+        - Very visible to the people
+    - Hated by some people
+        - Leftists criticized him for not doing enough (decline slowed,
+          but prosperity remained elusive)
+        - Conservatives believed he was bringing in socialism
+    - Prone to idealistic principles and pragmatic politics, allowing
+      compromise and contradiction
+Huey Long, enemy of FDR
+- Classic Demagogue/populist appealing to the people
+- Wore pink shirts, pastel ties
+- King Fish of Louisiana
+- Used bribery, intimidation and blackmail to support his policies
+- Funded schools, lowered taxes
+- Jealous of FDR.
+    - "Share the Wealth Society"
+        - Wanted to raise taxes on wealthiest Americans and redistribute
+          thousands to the poorest
+    - May have unseated Roosevelt
+    - Roosevelt called the senator one of the two most dangerous in the
+      country
+Father Charles Coughlin, the other most dangerous man
+- Fiery Roman Catholic radio priest
+- Criticized Roosevelt as "anti-god" pushing Communist conspiracy
+    - that he wanted to put oil companies, big companies, and god-given
+      resources under gov't control
+- Very anti-semitic, which forced radio stations to drop him by 40s
+- In 30s, he was going strong however
+
+The Court was strongly opposing Roosevelt's New Deal and Congress's
+support of him
+- Businesses were filing lawsuits that allowed this
+- Ex: Court unanimously killed NIRA, saying it violated anti-trust
+
+- US v Butler: tax on middlemen (warehouses, processors) in Agricultural
+  Adjustment Act unconstitutional 
+- 7 of 9 cases, SC ruled against ND.
+- Second New Deal tried to undermine the appeal of Huey Long
+    - Banking reforms, taxes on wealthy, continue employing people
+    - Works Progress Administration (WPA) employs hugely: increases by 2
+      million people each year
+    - NLRA "Wagner" Act guaranteed workers the right to unionize and
+      protected them. Required businesses to act in good faith.
+    - Social Security Act: old age pensions and unemployment relief
+      (insurance) through wage and payroll taxes
+        - Only by 1950s did it become seen as primary source of
+          retirement income, previously supplemental
+        - Conservative compared to European countries: other countries
+          used general funds instead of payroll taxes; also used a
+          regressive flat tax
+        - Removed a lot of money from circulation, hurting economy
+        - Excluded about half of workers
+    - Wealth-Tax "Soak the rich" Act
+        - Raised taxes on evasive rich
+        - Called communism; Roosevelt responds that he wanted to "save
+          capitalism" by supporting a more equal dist. of wealth
+Huey Long assassinated in 1939. Roosevelt wins in a landslide against
+Alf Landon
+- Keeps huge Democrat majority in Congress
+- Constructs a new Democrat political bloc
+
+Court-packing
+- If Congress enlarged the Court, it wouldn't block the Second ND
+    - Wanted 6 new justices, one for each over 75 years old
+- Backfired; public focused on constitutionality of proposal
+    - Congressional Reps and Dems decided it was too controversial
+- Justices began to uphold SS Act, Wagner Act.
+    - One conservative justice resigned, replaced by Roosevelt with a
+      New Dealer
+
+Evaluating the New Deal
+- Economy began to grow around 1939, so gov't stopped spending,
+  increasing unemployment, tumbling the economy
+    - Roosevelt relaunched federal spending
+    - Housing funding
+- Conservative Southern Democrats balked at Northerners and
+  African-Americans, acting against New Deal
+- Congressional elections of 1938 lost many seats to Reps
+    - Roosevelt began speaking about "preserving" reforms instead of
+      expanding
+    - Stalemate
+- "more energy than coherence"
+- But it did improve life in many ways: worker protections, bank regs,
+  public health
+    - Demonstrated that American Democracy could handle a collapse of
+      capitalism
+- 10M Americans still remained unemployed
+- Halfway Revolution was its longlasting impact