Report Outline
Dividend Tendencies in Present and Past Depressions
Dividend Policy of American Corporations
Establishment of Corporation Wage Reserve Funds
Special Focus
Dividend Tendencies in Present and Past Depressions
Total dividends paid by American corporations in the depression year 1930 are estimated to have exceeded similar disbursements during the prosperity year 1929 by some $2,000,000,000. Although earnings fell off in the twelvemonth following the stock market collapse, payments to shareholders, especially during the first half of 1930, were in general either maintained at their previous levels or increased. The effects of poor business and falling profits have lately begun to manifest themselves in the form of reduced or omitted dividends, but at the same time numbers of companies are still paying their stockholders at former rates, even though current earnings may be insufficient to cover such payments. Large surpluses accumulated in the recent prosperous years have made this course possible, but the period during which it can be pursued without an upturn in business is obviously limited.
Wage-cutting, while less prevalent in the present depression than in like periods in the past, has taken place to a considerable extent. The purchasing power of the labor group as a whole has been seriously curtailed by widespread unemployment and part-time employment. Even where wage rates have not been cut, factory payrolls have in many instances been sharply reduced through lack of sufficient orders to keep plants in full operation.
The course of dividends so far in the present period of hard times corresponds closely to that of former depressions, with the exception of 1921. Throughout the first months of general financial distress and slowing business activity, shareholders of domestic corporations have received their accustomed income from that source and even additional payments resulting from the previous prosperity. Only subsequently have dividends begun to decline, and if other periods of adversity may be taken as a guide, the reductions in dividend payments will not be so great as the reductions in corporation earnings. Experience also indicates that dividends may be expected to pick up fairly rapidly, once business recovery sets in on a substantial scale. |
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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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