Compare and contrast government policies in response to the Great Depression and Great Recession.

Policies during the great depression were much more drastic than that of the great recession and geared more towards the middle class. Great depression policies created jobs for the poorest Americans through spending packages that helped maintain and create infrastructure. The government also created new systems of banking and monetary policies like taking the US off the gold standard. The great recession policies had a lot of jobs created in the private sector versus the public sector, maintaining the health of the banks and other favored institutions. The TARP bailout in 2008 bailed out failed and favored financial institutions compared to the great depression were they let capitalism take it’s course and let banks fail. But the problem with that now is that financial institutions are too big to fail, thanks to the repeal of the Glass Steagall Act. The focus was also on the well being of companies instead of the health of the middle class. The government assumes that the private markets would better themselves enough through bailouts and spending by the government that enough private jobs would be created.