President Roosevelt is widely recognized as one of the best presidents in contemporary American history. Many aspects of his “New Deal” remain in effect to this day; the Social Security Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. However, even given the legacy of Roosevelt and his New Deal, he failed to combat unemployment, poverty and stagflation resulting from the crash of 1929. Much like Germany, the only thing that was able to completely pull America out One of the main factors in the depression was the build-up of the military that accompanied the outbreak of World War II. Massive U.S. spending on military buildups helped it reach full employment again, as years of government spending on relief programs failed. However, even though the New Deal failed, it nonetheless represented a turning point in American economic policy. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Unlike Herbert Hoover, who was extremely laissez-faire regarding government involvement in the economy, Roosevelt changed his fiscal policies, engaged in social and economic reform, and largely restructured the role of government in economic matters. Before Roosevelt, it was widely believed that the American economy was governed solely by economic Darwinism; in essence, that there was no regulation. For most of America's history, most politicians advocated a "crash and boom economy," in which the market often alternated between growth and decline, and it was believed that problems like Unemployment and inflation would eventually “fix themselves.” The result of this policy, or lack thereof, was several major recessions that occurred on average every nine years (Hummel, 2015). Roosevelt felt the opposite; that mass unemployment posed the greatest threat to American greatness in the mid-1900s. He makes this clear in one of his Fireside Chats when he declares: "This is a great national crusade, a crusade to destroy forced idleness, which is an enemy of the human spirit generated by this depression (Humphrey-Camardella, 2012.)”. The adoption of relief, recovery and reform measures paved the way for his predecessors, since he was the first president to consider that the regulation of markets fell within the jurisdiction of the federal government. Another monumental success of the New Deal was restoring the people's confidence in the office of president. The American public was severely disappointed by Franklin Roosevelt's predecessor on the issues discussed above. He believed that the government had no business providing social welfare and stood idly by while the unemployment rate reached nearly 25% and approximately 2 million citizens were poor (DeGrace, 2011). Slums were erected and nicknamed “Hoovervilles” by the people who lived there. . The military assault on the Bonus Army demonstration only further tarnished the government's reputation. Going back years earlier, much of the cabinet of the 29th President Warren G. Harding and the 30th President Calvin Coolidge was plagued by scandals, including many accepting bribes and embezzling funds. Roosevelt represented a much-needed departure from the scandalous yet apathetic tendencies of his predecessors. He used debt spending to create public works programs that.