• In October 29, 1929, a tragic event—called “Black Tuesday” by many citizens—occurred in the United States of America. Many other crises such as struggling farmers, the Dust Bowl, and business failures were to follow just years after. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt came to power in 1933, he issued a series of policies under the title “New Deal” that aimed to help all of those affected by the Great Depression. This deal was, for the most part, successful during the Great Depression; it provided many citizens (including stock brokers and farmers) with as much aid as possible through implementation of a set of acts and programs. However, the New Deal still failed to address problems such as racial issues and the lack of aid to certain groups of people (e.g. women and minorities as a whole) in the United States.

    Stock brokers and investors were one of the many groups of people that the New Deal tailored towards. One of the reasons of the stock market crash in 1929 was that many citizens were buying stocks on margin—a payment system that works similar to credit—and that much of the money invested in the stock market was technically nonexistent due to citizens not paying off their loans. The stock brokers that sold stocks to investors lost money when the crash occurred because of how the money they were receiving was lower than when the investor first bought the stock, and the investors also lost money because the value of their stocks plummeted to undesirable amounts; this situation worsened when many investors tried selling their stocks at the same time when the amounts were dropping. Franklin Roosevelt started the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) as one of the programs of the New Deal to help remedy this situation. With this program, investors could no longer buy stocks on margin due to how this was one of the causes of the stock market crash, businesses were required to submit reports on their financial status, and the government was granted the ability to police the stock market in search for liars and thieves. With this program fixing up the flaws that plagued the stock market before, this gave citizens a new hope on the stock market, and it motivated them to invest in the market again.

    Farmers were another group of people drastically affected by the Great Depression. Because of the overproduction of crops and livestock on the farmland, their products were low priced and left unsold. The farmers were forced to toss out all of their surplus crops, making very little income that was barely enough for them to pay off their homes. Most farmers were eventually evicted and their homes were foreclosed at a very low price. Some farms were just abandoned when the farmers living there were evicted. Roosevelt addressed this problem by creating the Agriculture Adjustment Act (AAA). The government, under this act, paid struggling farmers and requested them to limit their crop production and their livestock as a means of making farmed goods profitable again. This program helped get farmers back into the market and, for the most part, keep their property and home due to less surplus hindering their income.

    Franklin Roosevelt's presidency also marked the first time the government assisted the citizens of the United States with employment putting out programs such as the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). However, one could say that the government only gave jobs to some citizens, meaning that some groups of people such as women and minorities in general were not catered to during the depression. While this may be true, the government, in the end, managed to successfully put 12 million Americans of all races and gender to work.

    Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal did succeed in solving most of the problems of the Great Depression; he appointed many programs that catered to many citizens, and even with his mistakes, supported all races in their desperate struggle. FDR's term marked a turning point in government, making it more aware of its people and actually doing something that can make a difference for citizens all over the nation. Some of the programs from the New Deal still protect our prosperity even to this day such as the FDIC, the SEC, and Social Security, and these programs will help prevent a future Great Depression that could have brought our nation to turmoil once again.