After unsuccessful efforts by Herbert Hoover to alleviate the depression, newly elected President Franklin Delano Roosevelt pushed forward a new and experimental legislation both to boost economic recovery and to prevent future depressions in the United Sates (Hoover, Roosevelt). These ideas, which included more governmental regulation of the private sector and focused more on the protection of the consumer and the worker (Hoover, Roosevelt), stood in contrast to the laissez-faire attitudes of the previous decades. The new laws ensured slow but solid reconstruction of the economy and huge strides in labor equality.

The first wave of laws was known as the “First New Deal”, as opposed to the later one known as the “Second New Deal”. The first laws downplayed labor and social reform in order to promote recovery of the economy (Hoover, Roosevelt). This meant rebuilding trust in businesses and increasing regulation of the financial sector. Legislation from this period include the formation of the Securities Exchange Commission for the maintenance of fair trading markets (New Deal), and the Glass-Steagall Act which created an agency known as the FDIC to insure bank deposits (new Deal). The most important law however, would be the Emergency Banking Act, which “Required banks to pass a Treasury Department inspection before reopening..Roosevelt had declared a mandatory banking holiday until this first piece of New Deal Legislation could be passed” (New Deal). These measures eventually succeed in its purpose of restoring trust in the banking system.

Despite the success of the first new deal, the business community still expressed frustration with his efforts (Hoover, Roosevelt). FDR reciprocated by launching the Second New Deal. The new theme was recovery through reform and changes for the long-term (Hoover, Roosevelt). “Economic reforms were needed to…support the position of labor to achieve a healthier economy in which purchasing power could keep up with production” (Hoover, Roosevelt). Labor unions first became prominent in that time because new laws like the Wagner Act gave federal protection to unions and forced employers to recognize such unions (New Deal). Unemployment insurance, retirement plans and pensions were introduced as part of the Social Security Act (New Deal). The fair Labor Standards Act mandated minimum wages and maximum workweeks, and prohibited child labor (New Deal). In the end, the second new deal allowed the average American more rights and a faster way to regain the losses suffered in the last decade.

Though the Great Depression did not truly end until America’s entry into World War II, the first and second New Deals were two huge steps in the recovery of the American economy and its future strength. FDR’s short term policies allowed for fast growth after a great decline. The permanent laws made sure a depression like that could never happen again.