To What Extent Did Government Intervention Solve the Problems Brought About by the Great Depression?

Government intervention did little to cure the depression however did relieve some of the problems. President hoover's attempts to solve the problems brought by the depression can be said to be "too little to late." President Roosevelt's did not cure the depression however through his "New Deal" he was able to save capitalsim and effectivly solve the problems brought by the great depression. The main problems the new deal sought to solve were: sense of despair, collapse of financial system, high un employment and a shrinking economy. It was WW2 itslef that put america back to work. It was as rossevelt put it himself, it was 'Dr win the war' not 'Dr New deal' who got the paitient back on its feet."

Hoover had a policy he tagged as "rugged individualism" which implies indivudal indepenedance. However hoovers individualism later implied that people woud get through the depression through voluntry co-operation. He had seen this work in his roles as secretary of commerce and director general of the american relief adminsitartion after ww1. He saw no need for large scale federal reief, nor did he believe in a dole, as he felt the american people, and local state governmetns would provide adequate relief. Hoover believed that the depression was a crisis in confidence and tht it was his role to affirm his confidence in the economy and that the problems would be overcome. Unfortunalty this was hardly sufficent.

Hoovers presidency was characrerised by an active role in legislation. However this legislation was mostly to the advantage of big business (tirkcle- down theory) and despite the plight of farmers he did little for them and instead increased tariffs on many industrial products. He introduced the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) but made limited use of it. In 1932 he again reluctatnyl sigened a watered-down version of the Wagner-Garner relief bill.

Hoover was right that there was a crisis in confience in the economy. After the collapse of the florida real estate boom and by mind 1929 measures of economic activty were declining. In october the stock market crashed. But there were fundamtnal problems in the economy that hoover's notion of 'coluntarism' and 'trickle-down' would not solve. Direct action was required and hoover was unable to do it. McElvaine states that hoover's beliefs and values made him eminetly qualified to be president in the prosperous 1920's but that he had "the misfortune of being in the right place at the wrong time"

Americans voted for Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1932 on the assumption that the Democrats would dole out more federal assistance than Hoover and the Republicans had. Indeed, immediately after taking the oath of office, FDR set out to provide relief, recovery, and reform in his bundle of programs known as the New Deal. Roosevelt drew much of his inspiration for the New Deal from the writings of British economist John Maynard Keynes, who believed that a government's deficit spending could prime the economic pump and jump-start the economy. With the support of a panicked Democratic Congress, Roosevelt created most of the "alphabet agencies" of the First New Deal within his landmark

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