Successes and Failures of the Great Recession
When researching from one of President Obama’s speech, I see that President Obama planned a total cost of $240 billion package that would help fix up the failing economy.
How he'd pay for his plan?
- President Obama also wanted to factor in other tax measures that would offer $8 billion in tax credits for companies that hire workers who have been unemployed for six months or more and $5 billion in tax incentives for companies to invest in equipment and plants.
- President Obama wanted to spend on infrastructure banking. One top priority: a national "infrastructure bank." Here's how it would work: After an the initial round of funding that President Obama called for, the bank would offer loans to give private-sector projects a jolt of money. Eventually, interest paid on the loans would make the bank self sufficient. Obama said that funds would be distributed based on "how badly a construction project is needed and how much good it would do for the economy."
- Extend unemployment benefits: Nearly 43% of the unemployed have been so for more than six months -- a drag on the economy that Obama wants to soften by extending unemployment benefits once again.
- Help for long-term unemployed: The president wants a new tax credit of up to $4,000 for businesses that hire workers who have been out of a job for over six months.
- Subsidizing job training. President Obama wanted to train all of the workings so they had a strong foundation for how they would perform their daily career tasks.
- Teaching and first responder jobs: Obama is asking for $35 billion to be pumped into local communities to keep teachers and first responders on the job, while also allowing for some new hiring. Of that, $30 billion would go to educators, and the rest to first responders.
- Summer jobs: Obama wants to give hundreds of thousands of youth "the hope and dignity of a summer job next year." The unemployment rate for teens ages 16 to 24 rose to a record high this summer.
- Housing help: He also vowed to work with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to help homeowners refinance their mortgages at historically low interest rates around 4%.
How he'd pay for his plan?
- Obama vowed his plan would be fully paid for and asked the new debt super committee, already charged with proposing between $1.2 trillion and $1.5 trillion in debt reduction over a decade, to add the cost of American Jobs Act to its goal. So presumably if the panel did that, its new target would move closer to $2 trillion.
Successes and Failures of the Great Depression
- Differentiate the successes and failures of FDR's plan.
- Relief: Short-term programs meant to alleviate suffering.
- CCC -
- 1. First example of work-relief program: extremely successful.
- 2. Employed over 3 million young men
- 3. On its institution in 1933 it employed 250,000 men
- 4. Helped men to support their families
- FERA -
- 1. Work relief program, kept people from going on the dole
- 2. Helped people keep their dignity by not being on the dole but having jobs
- PWA - Provided work relief jobs for many people through building dams bridges, warships, and schools
- 1. Over its 8 year lifespan, the agency put more than 8.5 people to work
- 2. Provided work and income for millions of Americans through the construction and repair of roads, bridges, public schools, post offices, parks and airfields.
- 3. Established projects to employ artists and scholars
- 4. Fed children and redistributed food
- 5. Employed men and women
- CWA -
- 1. Hired both men and women
- 2. Gave temporary work relief to 4 million people for 5 months
- 3. Created manual labor jobs for the unemployed during the winter of 1933-1934
- Recovery: Long-term programs meant to strengthen the economy.
- AAA - In theory, it would control supply and command of the agriculture industry by removing excess crops and storing them to drive up the price
- TVA -
- 1. Helped prevent flooding in the Tennessee River Valley
- 2. Helped with energy generation for the 7 states in the TRV
- 3. Provided jobs for the regions
- 4. Helped to modernize the region with introducing crop rotation, fertilizers, and other innovations
- 5. Still in operation today—extremely successful
- NRA -
- 1. Theoretically allowed for each industry to set its own minimum wage, production levels, etc
- 2. Theoretically helped provide minimum wage (still set so low it was starvation level) and a maximum set work week (40 hours)
- Reform: Permanent structure meant to prevent future depressions.
- Bank Holidays: Fulfilled its purpose, restored citizens confidence in the American banking system
- TVA -
- 1. Helped prevent flooding in the Tennessee River Valley
- 2. Helped with energy generation for the 7 states in the TRV
- 3. Provided jobs for the regions
- 4. Helped to modernize the region with introducing crop rotation, fertilizers, and other innovations
- 5. Still in operation today—extremely successful
- NIRA:
- 1. Provides workers with regulation of maximum working hours and minimum wages
- 2. Allows for workers to unionize—something previously denied to them