Saving Capitalism: The Reconstruction Finance Corporation and the New Deal, 1933-1940

James Stuart Olson

Published by Princeton University Press 1988

Saving Capitalism

The Reconstruction Finance Corporation and the New Deal, 1933-1940

James Stuart Olson

Volume 5037 in the series Princeton Legacy Library

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400886944

Overview
Contents

About this book

For two generations historians have debated the significance of the New Deal, arguing about what it tried and tried not to do, whether it was radical or reactionary, and what its origins were. They have emphasized the National Recovery Administration, Agricultural Adjustment Administration, Tennessee Valley Authority, or the various social and labor legislation to illustrate an assortment of arguments about the "real" New Deal. Here James Olson contends that the little-studied Reconstruction Finance Corporation was the major New Deal agency, even though it was the product of the Hoover Administration. Pouring more than ten billion dollars into private businesses during the 1930s in a strenuous effort to "save capitalism," the RFC was the largest, most powerful, and most influential of all New Deal agencies, proving that the main thrust of the New Deal was state capitalism--the use of the federal government to shore up private property and the status quo. As national and international money markets collapsed in 1930, Hoover created an RFC with a structure similar to that of his War Finance Corporation. The agency was given two billion dollars to make low-interest loans to commercial banks, savings banks, other financial institutions, and railroads. With modifications, it survived the ultimate collapse of the economy in 1933 and went on to become the central part of the New Deal's effort to preserve fundamental American institutions.

Originally published in 1988.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

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Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Abbreviations Used in Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
CHAPTER I. The Origins of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
CHAPTER II. The Emergency Banking Act of 1933 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	25
CHAPTER III. Czar: Jesse Jones and His Empire Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	42
CHAPTER IV. Reconstruction of the Banking System, 1933–1934 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	63
CHAPTER V. The New Deal Credit Revolution, 1933–1934 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	84
CHAPTER VI. The Emergence of a Financial Power, 1933–1935 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	104
CHAPTER VII. The RFC and the National Recovery Administration, 1933–1935 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	128
CHAPTER VIII. Decline Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	162
CHAPTER IX. Revival Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
CHAPTER X. War and Transformation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	216
Selected Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	239