When Roosevelt took office, in 1933, he had three goals in mind, to save the banks, save the people, and to rebuild the economy. He set his sights on returning the banks to their prosperous days of the pre-depression age.
Since the beginning of the Depression, banks were closing faster than the people could withdraw all of their money. He countered this by closing all the banks and had Congress pass an Emergency Banking Act that made federal loans available to private bankers. At the same time he passed an Economy Act that required the government to balance the budget. …
