The New Deal and Recovery, Part 18: The Recovery So Far

George Selgin(Although my contributions to this series have so far been more-or-less in their proper order, this one isn ' t: it occurred to me only relatively recently that it would be worthwhile to take stock of the overall progress of the recovery up to the outbreak of the Roosevelt Recession before delving into that episode. Had I done this in the first place, this installment would be Part 10 of the series, with the present Part 10 and all subsequent installments moved up a notch. –Ed.)When it struck down the Agricultural Adjustment Act in January 1936, the Supreme Court dropped the final curtain on the original New Deal. By then the so-calledSecond New Deal was itself almost complete. On May 6th, 1935, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) took over the federal government ' s work relief programs, considerably expanding their scope. The National Labor Relations (Wagner) Act, aimed at reinforcing the National Industrial Recovery Act ' s (NIRA) surviving but feeble collective-bargaining provisions, came a month later. The Social Security Act followed that August. The Housing Act of 1937, passed the following September, finished the job. Unlike some parts of the First New Deal, none of these later measures had economic recovery as its chief aim.[1]That fact should be kept in mind as we take a step back from assessing particular parts of the New Deal to take stock of the overall progress of economic recovery up to mid-1937. How much did economic conditions improve? Does...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs