Background:

October 24, 1929, is known as "Black Thursday" in American history. Prior to this, in the summer of 1929, the United States was still singing and dancing. In the three months of the summer, the stock of General Motors rose from 268 to 391, and the stock of U.S. Steel rose from 165 to 258;

When people meet, they talk about nothing but stocks. As late as September, the U.S. Treasury Secretary assured the public: "This prosperous situation will continue."

However, in October 1929 On the 24th of March, the U.S. financial sector collapsed. Stocks fell from a peak of more than 500 billion U.S. dollars into the abyss overnight, causing more than 500 billion U.S. dollars of assets to disappear overnight. Prices fell so fast that even stocks Automatic market monitors couldn't keep up, and the stock market crash led to a four-year Great Depression.

Since then, the U.S. economy has fallen into the quagmire of economic crisis. The prosperous American society in the past has gradually been replaced by the bleak scene of inventory accumulation, workers' unemployment, and store closures. 86,000 companies went bankrupt, 5,500 banks failed, the national financial sector was suffocated, and the hard-earned savings of millions of Americans were wiped out.

GNP dropped sharply from US$104.4 billion at the outbreak of the crisis to US$74.2 billion in 1933, and the number of unemployed soared from less than 1.5 million to more than 17 million, accounting for more than a quarter of the entire labor force. , the overall economic level regressed to 1913.

Measures:

(1) Rectify the banking and financial system, order banks to close for rectification, gradually restore the credit of banks, abandon the gold standard, and depreciate the dollar to stimulate exports.

(2) Revitalizing industry or adjusting industry (central measures):

Prevent overproduction caused by blind competition through the National Industrial Recovery Act and the Blue Eagle Movement ; According to the National Industrial Revitalization Law, each industrial enterprise formulates fair operating regulations for its industry and determines the production scale, price level, market allocation, wage standards, working hours, etc. of each enterprise to prevent production losses caused by blind competition. surplus, thus strengthening the government’s control and regulation of capitalist industrial production (easing class contradictions).

(3) Adjust agricultural policies:

Give economic subsidies to farmers who reduce farming and production (farmers reduce large areas of cultivated land, slaughter large numbers of livestock, and receive subsidies from the government) to increase and stabilize agricultural products. price.

(4) Implement the most important measure: “relief through work”.

(5) Vigorously build public transportation projects to alleviate social crises and class conflicts, increase employment and stimulate consumption and production.

(6) The government has also established a social security system and passed the "Social Security Law" so that retired workers can receive pensions and insurance, the unemployed can receive insurance benefits, and mothers with young children and disabled people can receive Subsidies are available.

(7) Establish an emergency relief agency to distribute relief funds to the people.

Evaluation:

Roosevelt’s New Deal had an important effect on the United States.

(1) The U.S. economy is slowly recovering and people's lives have improved, but the number of unemployed people is still high.

(2) The state’s macro-control and management of the economy have been strengthened.

(3) The power of the U.S. federal government has been significantly enhanced.

(4) The capitalist system has been adjusted, consolidated and developed.

(5) Boldly draw on the strengths of the planned economy, use reform methods to save the economic crisis and prevent fascism from coming to power.

(6) The New Deal is of great significance in the history of economic development in the United States and the world.

(7) Created a new model of state intervention in the economy, and the United States entered the period of state monopoly capitalism.

There are many reasons why Roosevelt’s New Deal was successful:

(1) This is an objective requirement of economic development, that is, to solve the anarchy (free competition) in the production process )state.

(2) The strong economic strength gave the Roosevelt administration the ability to intervene in the economy.

(3) The democratic tradition formed since the American War of Independence has provided a strong political guarantee for the implementation of the New Deal (one of the important reasons for the formation of fascism in Germany and Japan is that they are militaristic countries with essential expansion).

(4) State intervention in the economy and the use of fiscal policy to adjust the economy have become a powerful trend in the American economics community, providing a theoretical basis for the implementation of the New Deal.

(5) The United States learned from the successful experience of the planned economy of the Soviet Union at that time.

(6) Roosevelt’s personal qualities (Hitler of Germany and Hirota of Japan attempted to seize world hegemony and seize power, putting the country on the path of fascist expansion; Roosevelt started from maintaining the stability of the system and safeguarding the world Depart peacefully).