Report Outline
The Central Question of Prices and Purchasing Power
Divergent Elements of Recovery Program
Progress in Industry Under Recovery Program
Progress in Agriculture Under Recovery Program
Changes in Workers' and Farmers' Buying Power
Problems and Tendencies of Recovery Program
Special Focus
The Central Question of Prices and Purchasing Power
The Farmer's Revolt against the N. R. A., the new gold purchasing plan and the pressure for inflation, the Buy Now campaign, the administration's credit program, and the re-doubled efforts to speed up construction and increase employment in heavy industry all emphasize the extreme importance of consumers' buying power to the success of the recovery program. There has been a marked falling off in production and business activity since July, coinciding with rapidly rising retail prices and a drop in prices received by farmers for their products. The inferences to be drawn from these facts appear to be that prices are overtaking, or already have overtaken, the increase of buying funds in the hands of consumers, and that a recession in the demand for goods will be the result. This belief is supported by the available statistics on sales. The public is not buying as much as it did during the summer months—in fact it is not buying as much as it did at this time last year.
The Federal Reserve Board reports that retail sales in September were only two per cent greater in value than those in September, 1932. Retail prices, however, were approximately 17 per cent higher, so that actual quantity sales of goods were probably some 13 per cent smaller than a year before. Whatever the cause of such a decided slump in the demand for goods, continuation of the downward trend in sales must mean the defeat of the recovery program. When goods are not sold over the counter, replacement orders cannot be given, factories must slow up, the railroads carry less freight, and men and women are thrown out of work all along the line; shrinking pay rolls result in lessened buying power, ever smaller sales, and again the spiral of deepening depression is experienced.
The Central Question of Prices and Purchasing Power
Due to the increase in prices, the person who is now receiving the same income he did five or six months ago finds that it will go less than four-fifths as far in his purchasing. It is true that some 3,500,000 workers have been re-employed and now have funds with which to buy, that weekly earnings of others have risen, and that in general the purchasing power of the farmer's income has improved over last year. In other words, there has been a re-distribution of income along the lines contemplated by the administration, favoring some of the least fortunate groups in the population. But the vital question from the standpoint of national recovery is whether the total buying power of the population has been raised; whether the aggregate income of consumers has increased more rapidly than prices. |
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New Deal, Great Depression, and Economic Recovery |
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Feb. 20, 2009 |
Public-Works Projects |
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Jul. 25, 1986 |
New Deal for the Family |
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Apr. 04, 1973 |
Future of Social Programs |
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Nov. 18, 1944 |
Postwar Public Works |
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Apr. 12, 1941 |
Public Works in the Post-Emergency Period |
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Mar. 08, 1940 |
Integration of Utility Systems |
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Feb. 26, 1938 |
The Permanent Problem of Relief |
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Jun. 08, 1937 |
Experiments in Price Control |
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Jan. 05, 1937 |
Credit Policy and Control of Recovery |
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Nov. 27, 1936 |
New Deal Aims and the Constitution |
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Oct. 16, 1936 |
Father Coughlin vs. the Federal Reserve System |
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Sep. 25, 1936 |
Roosevelt Policies in Practice |
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Feb. 11, 1936 |
Conditional Grants to the States |
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Dec. 11, 1935 |
Capital Goods Industries and Recovery |
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Sep. 25, 1935 |
Unemployment Relief Under Roosevelt |
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Jul. 17, 1935 |
The R.F.C. Under Hoover and Roosevelt |
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Jul. 03, 1935 |
Six Months of the Second New Deal Congress |
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Jun. 04, 1935 |
The Supreme Court and the New Deal |
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Mar. 05, 1935 |
Public Works and Work Relief |
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Feb. 16, 1935 |
Organized Labor and the New Deal |
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Dec. 04, 1934 |
Rural Electrification and Power Rates |
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Oct. 26, 1934 |
Federal Relief Programs and Policies |
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Jul. 25, 1934 |
Distribution of Federal Emergency Expenditures |
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Jul. 17, 1934 |
Debt, Credit, and Recovery |
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May 25, 1934 |
The New Deal in the Courts |
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Mar. 27, 1934 |
Construction and Economic Recovery |
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Mar. 19, 1934 |
Price Controls Under N.R.A. |
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Feb. 15, 1934 |
Federal Promotion of State Unemployment Insurance |
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Jan. 10, 1934 |
Government and Business After the Depression |
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Jan. 02, 1934 |
The Adjustment of Municipal Debts |
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Dec. 12, 1933 |
The Machine and the Recovery Program |
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Dec. 05, 1933 |
Winter Relief, 1933–1934 |
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Nov. 11, 1933 |
Power Policies of the Roosevelt Administration |
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Oct. 28, 1933 |
Buying Power under the Recovery Program |
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Oct. 19, 1933 |
Land Settlement for the Unemployed |
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Sep. 20, 1933 |
The Capital Market and the Securities Act |
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Jul. 18, 1933 |
Public Works and National Recovery |
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Jul. 01, 1933 |
The Plan for National Industrial Control |
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May 03, 1933 |
Economic Readjustments Essential to Prosperity |
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Apr. 26, 1933 |
Government Subsidies to Private Industry |
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Mar. 25, 1933 |
Rehabilitation of the Unemployed |
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Feb. 17, 1933 |
Federal Cooperation in Unemployment Relief |
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Nov. 16, 1932 |
Systems of Unemployment Compensation |
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Nov. 09, 1932 |
Policies of the New Administration |
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Aug. 18, 1932 |
Emergency Relief Construction and Self-Liquidating Projects |
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Dec. 28, 1931 |
Relief of Unemployment |
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Aug. 01, 1931 |
National Economic Planning |
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Jul. 20, 1931 |
Dividends and Wages in Periods of Depression |
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Feb. 19, 1931 |
Insurance Against Unemployment |
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Jan. 19, 1931 |
Business Failures and Bankruptcy Administration |
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Jan. 01, 1931 |
Federal Subsidies to the States |
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Dec. 08, 1930 |
Federal Relief of Economic Distress |
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Sep. 25, 1930 |
The Extent of Unemployment |
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May 16, 1930 |
Politics and Depressions |
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Dec. 20, 1929 |
The Federal Public Works Program |
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Jun. 08, 1929 |
The Federal Reserve System and Stock Speculation |
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Apr. 14, 1928 |
The Federal Reserve System and Price Stabilization |
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Feb. 25, 1928 |
The Federal Reserve System and Brokers' Loans |
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