The results of the implementation of the main measures of the New Deal: "It should be pointed out that Roosevelt's New Deal measures expanded the presidential power in an all-round way, and finally gradually established a new pattern of separation of powers centered on the president. He is a pioneer in the institutionalization of the presidency. "
Finance (the New Deal begins with finance)
(1) Save the banking crisis, reform and start to manage the financial system. In order to solve the problem of bank currency shortage, it entrusts the Federal Reserve Bank to issue currency according to the bank's assets, and authorizes Fuxing Finance Corporation to provide liquidity for banks by purchasing preferred shares of banks. In order to restore people's trust in banks, it stipulates that the Ministry of Finance should rectify banks and supervise their reopening. According to the requirements, the Ministry of Finance has taken measures to support large banks with the ability to pay, and eliminated the imperfect banks with the ability to repay without compensation. In order to protect the bank reserves and prevent the outflow of gold, it prohibits the storage and export of gold. (2) On March 20th, the Roosevelt Savings Act was passed, which reduced government expenditure and veterans' allowance by 500 million dollars. (3) By providing securities facts, securities trading and banking services, namely the famous Glass-Steagall method, the reform and management of banks, securities markets and currencies have been strengthened successively. (4) The dollar is decoupled from gold, the dollar depreciates and the gold standard is abandoned. Results: The financial measures were successful. Through the above measures, the Roosevelt administration maintained and strengthened the private ownership of American financial capital, and also strengthened the state's management and control over the financial system.
Because the Great Depression was triggered by a financial crisis triggered by crazy speculation. President Roosevelt's New Deal also began with the consolidation of finance. Among the 15 important pieces of legislation made during the period known as the "100-day New Deal" (from March 9, 65438+March 9, 0933 to June 6, 65438), laws related to finance accounted for 1/3. 1933 when Roosevelt was sworn in as president on March 4, almost no banks in the country were open for business, and checks could not be cashed in Washington. At the request of Roosevelt, on March 9, Congress passed the Emergency Banking Act, and decided to adopt a separate examination and licensing system for banks, and allowed solvent banks to resume business as soon as possible. From March 13 to March 15, 1477 1 banks were allowed to reopen, while before the crisis, 25,568 banks were eliminated by 1929 banks. Roosevelt's extraordinary measures to rectify finance played a great role in cleaning up the mess and stabilizing people's hearts. Public opinion believes that this action is like "a flash of lightning in the dark sky." While reorganizing banks, Roosevelt also took actions to strengthen America's foreign economic position. Since1933 March 10 announced the cessation of gold export, major measures have been taken one after another: on April 5, it was announced that private storage of gold and gold securities was prohibited, and dollar bills stopped being exchanged for gold; /kloc-In April of 0/9, the export of gold was banned and the gold standard was abandoned; On June 5, the public and private debts were abolished and paid in gold; 1934 65438+1October 10, announcing the issuance of US$ 3 billion banknotes guaranteed by state securities, and devaluing the US dollar by 40.94%. Through the depreciation of the dollar, the competitiveness of American goods abroad has been strengthened. These measures have played an important role in stabilizing the situation and dredging the blood circulation of economic life.
Agricultural and industrial supervision
During the "Hundred Days New Deal", while solving the banking problem, Roosevelt tried his best to urge the parliament to pass the Agricultural Adjustment Law and the National Industrial Recovery Law successively, and became the right-hand man of the whole New Deal. Roosevelt asked capitalists to abide by the rules of "fair competition" and stipulate the scale, price and sales scope of each enterprise; Set the minimum wage and maximum working hours for workers (the original workers work 55 hours a week, and the total salary is only 60 cents, while the adjusted standard is: workers work 40 hours a week, and the minimum weekly salary is 65,438+02 dollars), thus limiting monopoly and reducing and alleviating tense class contradictions. After receiving the reluctant support of large enterprises, Roosevelt then tried his best to win the support of small and medium-sized business owners. He said that it is very important for large enterprises to accept the industrial revival law. "The field that produces fruitful results lies in small employers, and their contribution will be to provide new employment opportunities for 1 to 10 people. These small employers are actually an extremely important part of the backbone of the country, and the success or failure of our plan depends largely on them. " The development of small and medium-sized enterprises has played a positive role in social stability and economic recovery in the United States. In order to implement the new regulations, the government awarded the "Blue Eagle" medal to the enterprises that accepted the regulations, which marked the slogan "We do our duty" in recognition.
Vigorously build public works to provide relief for the unemployed.
Another important content of the New Deal is relief work. 1933 in may, congress passed the federal emergency relief law, established the federal emergency relief agency, and quickly allocated various relief funds and materials to the States. In the second year, the simple relief was changed to "work for relief", which provided the unemployed with opportunities to engage in public utilities and safeguarded their self-reliance and self-esteem. In the early days of Roosevelt's administration, more than 6.5438+0.7 million unemployed people and their relatives in China depended on the help and charity of the state government, the municipal government and private charities to make a living. However, compared with such a huge army of unemployed people, this part of the financial resources is tantamount to a drop in the bucket. Only the federal government can solve this complex social problem. The first measure of Roosevelt's New Deal was to urge Congress to pass the plan of the private resource protection group. The plan specially recruits young and strong people aged between 18 and 25 with high unemployment rate, who are engaged in tree planting and forest protection, flood control, soil and water conservation, road construction, opening forest fire prevention lines and setting up forest watchtowers. The first batch recruited 250,000 people to work in Quanzhou 1500 camps.
Before going to the United States to fight in the war, more than 2 million young people worked in this institution, and they opened up more than 7.4 million acres of state-owned forest areas and a large number of state-owned parks. On average, everyone works for 9 months, and most of the monthly salary is used for family support, thus expanding the relief area and corresponding purchasing power of the whole society. For Qian Qian people who depend entirely on states and cities, Roosevelt also urged Congress to pass the federal emergency relief law, set up federal relief agencies, rationally divide the use ratio between the federal government and the states, and formulate preferential policies to encourage local governments to directly help the poor and the unemployed. During the New Deal, there were various relief agencies in the United States, which could be divided into two systems: the Ministry of Public Works (the government allocated more than 4 billion US dollars) and the Ministry of Civil Engineering (the investment was nearly 654.38 billion US dollars). The latter built 654.38+08 million small-scale engineering projects nationwide, including school buildings, bridges, dams, sewage systems, post offices and administrative departments. Later, several new relief organizations were established. Among them, the most famous are the project establishment institutions set up by the National Congress with a grant of 5 billion dollars and the National Youth Administration for young people. They employ a total of 23 million people, accounting for more than half of the national labor force. By the eve of World War II, the federal government had spent $654.38+0.8 billion on various projects and a small amount of direct relief expenses, and the American government had built nearly 6,543.8+0,000 airports, 6,543.8+0,200 sports fields and more than 800 school buildings and hospitals, which not only created employment opportunities for craftsmen, unskilled workers and the construction industry, but also provided various employment opportunities for thousands of unemployed artists. The money goes through the pockets of workers, through different channels and consumption, and returns to the hands of capitalists, which has become a "fire water" to stimulate private consumption and personal investment together with government investment.
Establish a social security system
The second "New Deal" began with 1935. On the basis of the first stage, the achievements of the New Deal were consolidated by legislation through laws and regulations such as social insurance bill, national labor relations bill and public utilities bill. Roosevelt believed that if a government "can't take care of the elderly and patients, can't provide employment opportunities for the strong, can't inject young people into the industrial system, and let the shadow of insecurity hang over every family, then it is not a government that can or should exist", and social insurance should be responsible for the whole life from cradle to grave. To this end, the Social Insurance Law was enacted. According to the law, all wage workers who retire at the age of 65 can get a monthly pension of $65,438+00 to $85 according to different salary levels. Regarding unemployment insurance, Roosevelt explained: "It can not only help individuals avoid relying on welfare when they are dismissed in the future, but also alleviate the impact of economic difficulties by maintaining purchasing power." The source of insurance money. Half of the insurance premium is paid by employees and employers, equivalent to 65438+ 0% of workers' wages, and the other half is distributed by the federal government. This social insurance law reflects the strong desire of the broad masses of working people and is welcomed and praised by the vast majority of Americans.
On May 24th, Roosevelt delivered a widely-watched speech to Congress on the legislation of minimum wage and maximum working hours. The speech admitted that "one third of the population in China can't eat well, dress well and live well, and most of them are engaged in agriculture or industry". "We must bear in mind that our goal is to improve rather than reduce the living standards of those who are now malnourished, poorly dressed and living in poor conditions. We know that when a large part of our workers are unemployed, overtime and low-level wages cannot increase national income. " Congress did not take action on the bill,1October 1937 12, and Roosevelt introduced the bill again until June 1938 14. This is the fair labor standards act (also known as the Law on Wages and Working Hours). Its main regulations include 40 hours of working hours per week and a minimum wage of 40 cents per hour; It is forbidden to use/kloc-children under 0/6 years old, and it is forbidden to use/kloc-workers under 0/8 years old in dangerous industries. With the development of economy, the provisions of the minimum wage will be adjusted in the future. Although these social legislations belong to the category of social improvement, they are very beneficial to the broad masses of the people, especially the working class. In order to solve the problem of federal funds for the social insurance system, Roosevelt first implemented a progressive tax based on income and assets. The net income of $50,000 and the legacy of $40,000 will be levied at 365,438+0%, and the legacy of more than $5 million will be levied at 75%; In the past, the corporate tax was always 65,438+03.75%. According to the tax law 65,438+0935, the tax rate of companies with incomes below $50,000 is reduced to 65,438+02.5%, and the tax rate of companies with incomes above $50,000 is increased to 65,438+05%.
Adjust the separation of powers system
On February 5th, 1937, Roosevelt proposed that the Supreme Court was understaffed, with too many cases and older judges, which affected its efficiency. Therefore, if he has served for 10 years and has not retired at the age of 70, he should add another judge, so the number of judges in the Federal Supreme Court can be increased from 9 to 15. According to the economic law of 1933, Roosevelt promulgated the executive order of 6 166, reorganized, merged and abolished some administrative agencies, and strengthened the leading role of the budget bureau. 1939 In April, Congress passed the Law on Restructuring New Deal Institutions, which stipulated that many small institutions should be merged into large institutions. 1939 On September 8th, the President issued the first executive order, and established the President's Office, including the White House Office, Budget Bureau, National Resource Planning Office, Personnel Management Liaison Office and Government Report Office.
Fireside chat
Roosevelt invented the "fireside chats" and told the people of the whole country the policies and guidelines in easy-to-understand language, which inspired the American people and pushed them out of the economic crisis.
By 1939, President Roosevelt's New Deal had achieved great success. The New Deal involves almost all aspects of American social and economic life, most of which are specific considerations for the United States to get rid of the crisis and minimize its consequences, and some are long-term plans based on the long-term development goals of capitalism. Its direct role is to prevent the collapse of the American economy and help the United States out of the crisis. Since 1935, almost all economic indicators in the United States have steadily picked up. The gross national product increased from $74.2 billion in 1933 to $204.9 billion in 1939, and the number of unemployed people decreased from170,000 to 8 million, which restored people's confidence in the state system and got rid of the threat of fascism to the democratic system. It prevented the United States from violent social unrest in the crisis, created favorable environment and conditions for the United States to participate in the anti-fascist war later, and largely determined the social and economic development direction of the United States after World War II.
It is true that the ultimate goal of Roosevelt's "New Deal" measures is to strengthen state capitalism in order to overcome the economic crisis and consolidate the capitalist system. "New Deal" is an experimental therapy that he tried to treat capitalist social diseases when conventional therapy failed. In fact, some measures of the "New Deal" also have shortcomings, which often become the reason for his political opponents to attack. During the implementation of the "New Deal", the classes whose interests were damaged also resisted and vilified. Even the Industrial Recovery Act and two other bills, which were important in the early days of the New Deal, were ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court two years later. However, as long as we really look at the "New Deal" with the attitude of historical materialism, it is not difficult to see that the "New Deal" recognizes the pulse of American economic and social life, and the slogan of "enabling people to return to work and revitalize our enterprises" conforms to the interests of the broad masses of working people and fully mobilizes their enthusiasm. Roosevelt took it as the responsibility of the government to maintain the normal operation of the national economy and ensure the employment of citizens. In particular, a large number of engineering projects built in the form of work-for-relief not only greatly eased the unemployment difficulties and stimulated the early recovery of the economy, but also benefited the American economy from many infrastructure projects. The New Deal left many measures and policies to prevent the recurrence of the Great Depression, which laid a solid foundation for the United States to enter World War II and rise rapidly after the war. Therefore, Roosevelt became the most popular president in the United States and the world since abraham lincoln, and will go down in history forever.
On the premise of avoiding nationalization as much as possible and trying to maintain the capitalist free enterprise system, the government fully intervenes in the economy; Try to control the mass production of goods and achieve a balanced state; At the same time, take some measures that are beneficial to workers and small producers to ease domestic class contradictions and strengthen state intervention and guidance in the economy.
Two days in Nanjing opened my eyes