repairing the nations banking systems.
Another pivotal reform during the New Deal was the Glass- Steagall Act, also known as the Banking Act of 1933.
This act completely restructured America’s banking system by separating commercial and investment banks. This was crucial because at the time banks were using people’s money to invest in the stock market, and that is what caused over five thousand banks to fail during the Great Depression. The commercial banks were now for individual deposits and loans and investment banks were for sophisticated financial products for big U.S. corporations. One of the most important ideals that transpired from the Banking Act of 1933 was the idea of the Federal Deposit Insurance Cooperation
(FDIC). The FDIC is arguably the most important program that emerged from the New Deal. The FDIC insured deposits up to five thousand dollars—the amount has continuously increased since then. For the first time in history, because of the FDIC, citizens had a sense of security about the money they deposited into a bank. Today, the FDIC is still why people trust banks and don’t frantically withdrawal money in times of crisis; they now insure up to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. If the FDIC had not been created, banks would have likely become extinct because people would not have trusted them with their money. The New Deal not only helped lift the United States out of the Great Depression, but it drastically reformed the nation in many ways. Today, some of the most important and efficient programs in America are ones developed from the New Deal. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal saved America’s banks and by extension the US economy. Without programs like FDIC, Glass- Steagall and the Emergency Banking act, banks might not exist as we know them today. The New Deal improved the economy drastically and permanently changed America.