N.Y. Times: Echoes of 1933?
Read the article in the N.Y. Times and complete the following questions:
1. What first brought the American economy to a halt in 1929?
2. What percentage of the population was unemployed by 1933?
3. What are some comparisons between the situation today and the situation in the Great Depression?
4. What is the Obama administration's first major effort at repairing the economy?
5. What are the pieces of the stimulus package?
6. What mistake did President Hoover make in 1929 after the stock market crash?
7. What are some of the statistics indicating how bleak the economy is right now?
8. What is a "bank panic"?
9. How did President Roosevelt respond to the bank panic?
10 What were the "fireside chats"?
11. What is "Keynesian economic"?
12. What finally brought the Great Depression to an end? Why?
13. Explain how each of the "New Deal" programs below have prevented the economy from being worse than it is, compared to the Great depression:
a) social security
b) unemployment insurance
c) minimum wage
d) deposit insurance
e) financial watchdog