The New Deal saw a flurry of legislative activity. The Roosevelt Administration created so many new programs that they became known by their three-letter acronyms. The Works Progress Administration was simply the WPA; the National Recovery Act was the NRA, etc. People joked that the New Deal was nothing but a governmental case of alphabet soup!

All of these programs were aimed at helping different groups of people and addressing different needs during the Great Depression. In this lesson, we will try to better understand FDR's soup recipe.

The New Deal had a wide impact on American society and many of its reforms are still active today. Here are just a few examples:

• Social Security - the government pension program for the elderly
• Federal Deposit Insurance Commission - the government guarantee that money placed in savings and checking accounts are safe from bank failure
• Minimum Wage Laws - the government mandate that jobs must pay a certain amount of money