Honors Blog #2

President Obama,

As you may know, FDR was the President during the time of the Great Depression. His goal was to get out of that horrible situation and he succeeded.

The first one hundred days that Franklin D. Roosevelt spent in office he presented a wide variety of legislation to Congress which brought relief to the needy and helped boost the economy.

While Roosevelt was President he would need help creating, the Brain Trust. The Brain trust was made up of people who were not in the government including professors, lawyers, and others who came to Washington to advise him on economic affairs. Being able to become familiar with different view points he was able to make up his own mind after thinking about the others thoughts and ideas.

Franklin then went on to do his famous Fireside chats. When the economy had reached its peak in disappointment President Roosevelt started doing speeches on the radio where he would talk about the banking system and other economic concerns. Because the President seemed to be speaking directly to the individual listening everything was clearly explained. FDR was able to describe his actions and reasonings with no interruption and everyone would be able to understand what exactly the government was doing.

Then came the New Deal which had programs that designed to reverse the effects of the Depression. The five programs included the Federal Deposit Insurance Cooperation (FDIC), the Rural Electrification Administration (REA), the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA). The FDIC insured savings accounts in banks approved by the government. If this failed the government would repay the depositors their money. The REA loaned money to extend electricity to rural areas changing it from one of ten farms having electricity, one out of four. The WPA made jobs for people to work in buildings, hospitals and parks including artists and photographers. This was the most successful program. The CCC provided jobs for single men between the ages of 18 to 25. They would develop new parks, build bridges, plant trees and help with flood control projects. Finally, the AAA helped farmers by having the government pay the farmers to not produce crops because of overproduction. Because less was being grown, the prices would rise.

My advice to you, President Obama, would be to be like Franklin Roosevelt. He took the time and effort to really find ways to help America and its people get back on track. I'm not saying that you should have your own morning talk show on the radio but maybe have your own form of the Brain Trust and ask for other peoples help. You are only human and can only do so much for everyone. Now times have changed since 1933 when FDR was president but the financial crisis of the United States is almost identical. Currently 7.9 million jobs have been lost. Something needs to happen before we're in too deep of a hole to ever get out.

Sincerely,
Allyson Moder



Resources:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/11/17/081117fa_fact_packer
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2008/11/10/081110taco_talk_coll
http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/franklindroosevelt
http://money.cnn.com/2010/07/02/news/economy/jobs_gone_forever/index.htm