“We’re in the Money!” Game

1. “We’re in the Money!” Game • Decide what you want to do before each round: • Your group begins with 5 points. • Hold Tight = keep what you have • Play it Safe = potential for modest gains • Go for the Gold! = potential for amazing gains • The roll of the dice will determine your score (higher roll = higher points) • Keep track of points in “Running Total” column

2. How did you feel when points were rising? When they dropped dramatically? • Which of the three game options produced the worst results in the end? • How many groups decided to “Go for the Gold!” sometime during the game? Why did some groups make other choices? • Can you think of any time in history when something like this happened?

3. What is happening in this image? • Who in our game might have ended up here? • How do you think the event depicted here might be related to the overall American economy at the time?

4. essential questions: How did the prosperous 1920s turn into the Great Depression? What is the Great Depression?

5. How did we see prosperity in the 1920s?

6. long-term causes of the Great Depression: 1. overproduction

7. 2. uneven prosperity • Mellon’s tax cut for wealthy

8. 3. farmers suffering • would not recover from 1920-21 recession • 25% of America

9. 4. easy credit (too easy) • 80% no savings • debt rising again today • artificially high stock prices

10. 5. speculation 6. margin buying (a.k.a. buying on margin)

11. 7. laissez-faire government Which of these do we see today? How?

12. the immediate cause of the Great Depression: Black Tuesday: stock market crash • followed Black Thursday • scared investors selling makes things worse video on Black Tuesday

13. The Great Depression: • from stock market crash to World War II • employment and values decrease

14. bank runs > banks broke > savings gone > banks fail bank run, 1933

15. self-perpetuating in a consumer economy because spending is down longer depression less spending and bank deposits

16. depression is worldwide, though… U.S. loans/investment to Germany reparations to G.B. and France G.B. and France buy U.S. goods …no nation hit as hard as the U.S.

17. Based on the charts shown, add three things that will define the Great Depression:

18. consider: How do you think the Great Depression will affect the lives of Americans? essential question: How did the Great Depression affect American lives?

19. Farmers • many losing land (banks foreclosing when they can’t pay their mortgage; equipment repossessed)

20. Dust Bowl: over-farming + droughts; these blizzards of dust covered everything, even killing livestock

21. Texas, 1935

22. Okies: many farmers were forced to move to cities where they added to the strains on the cities resources

23. Men in the Cities • depression from inability to provide for family, dependence on bread lines bread line at Sixth Avenue and 42nd Street

24. many became hoboes

25. Families • hard times brought some together, broke others apart (divorce rates down, but mostly due to cost)

26. Minorities • on the one hand, hard times not new • on the other hand, increased discrimination (“last hired, first fired”)

27. Follow-up Assignment: The literature and art of the 1920s showed how bad the situation was. What would your life be like in the Great Depression. Consider using or showing the terms below to write or draw your story. speculation buying on margin Black Tuesday bank run Dust Bowl Okies hobo bread lines

28. consider: What would you want government to do during the Great Depression? essential question: How did Hoover fail in his response to the Great Depression? Herbert Hoover was president from 1929-1933.

29. encouraged volunteerism (i.e. asked companies to not lay off workers) because he said the business cycle would fix itself

30. rejected idea of welfare when Americans were increasingly looking to federal government for direct relief

31. raised tariffs, causing higher prices due to retaliation from other countries I’m Herbert Hoover. I’m raising tariffs to help get the U.S. out of this depression. OH YEAH?!? I’m Prime Minister MacDonald of Great Britain and I’m raising tariffs too, jerk!

32. reaction to Hoover included naming signs of poverty after him (i.e. shantytowns = “Hoovervilles”) Empty pockets showing were called “Hoover flags.”

34. when Hoover did take action, it was too little (Boulder Dam, later named Hoover Dam), too late (Reconstruction Finance Corporation)

35. the final thing to ensure he would not be reelected was his reaction to the Bonus Army The Bonus Expeditionary Force, more commonly known as the Bonus Army, portrayed Hoover as Kaiser Wilhelm, the leader of Germany during WWI.

36. veterans marched to Washington, D.C. to demand their bonus early Washington, D.C., police chief Major Pelham Glassford inspecting the camp of the Bonus Army in 1932.

37. when they did not leave, Hoover had the army force them out, injuring many Tanks and grenades were used by the U.S. Army to disperse the Bonus Army from their encampment at Anacostia Flats, near the U.S. Capitol in 1932.

38. Possible captions: • Many veterans marched to Washington to demand their bonuses early during the Great Depression. • Both black and white veterans marched to Washington to demand direct relief from the government. • The Bonus Army illustrated how people needed direct relief during the Great Depression and were not getting it from Hoover.

39. A caption explains what a picture is showing. Write your own caption for the pictures on the back of your sheet. Mention Hoover in each.

40. The Hot Seat • one person volunteers to be in the hot seat • He or she answers a series of multiple choice questions • 1 question right = sense of self-satisfaction 2 questions right = fist bump 3 questions right = gum 4 questions right = prize box • You have two opportunities to “poll the class” where you can see how the class answered

41. What is shown in the cartoon? Does it present this as a good thing or a bad thing? How can you tell?

42. essential question: How did Franklin Roosevelt respond to the Great Depression?

43. The New Deal: • FDR won the election of 1932 because he was not Hoover

44. his reform program would be known as the New Deal

45. first thing FDR did was to declare a bank holiday closing banks to prevent bank runs until the banks could be fixed

46. New Deal is also called the Hundred Days because that is how long it took for FDR to propose (and Congress to approve) more than 15 new pieces of legislation to fight the Great Depression

47. New Deal expanded federal government Obama has been compared to FDR because both expanded the federal government.

48. New Deal relies on deficit spending (borrowing to pay for government programs)

49. FDR made “direct” contact with Americans with his radio addresses, called “fireside chats” What effects did these radio addresses have? statue at the FDR Memorial in Washington, D.C. link to FDR’s first fireside chat

50. Skim through pages 602-605. In your groups, identify what each of the New Deal measures listed on the sheet (continues onto back) did. Make sure that you feel comfortable with each of these as parts of the New Deal.