Deposits, Withdrawals, and The Role of the People
- What a nice way to start a speech, by calling the audience "my friends" (1).
- President Roosevelt immediately establishes camaraderie and connection—he's not just the prez; he's our buddy.
- Time to talk banks. But notice how FDR approaches this subject—by stating that he's reaching out to the "overwhelming majority who use banks for the making of deposits and the drawing of checks" (2).
- Remember, at a time without credit cards and ATMs, heading to your local bank was the only way to get money, and cash and checks were the only way to buy things. You can bet his audience was very interested in what he had to say.
- This speech is all about transparency. When FDR says that he wants to talk about what has been done and what is going to happen, he's being open and honest with America.
- Throwing out a compliment to his listeners, he acknowledges that times have been hard with banks unavailable for services (again, banks were the only way to get money).
- Next Roosevelt gets into the mechanics, and offers a quick bit of very useful economics. (This part is still useful today, y'all.)
- When you put cash into the bank, it doesn't just sit in a vault. The bank takes your money and invests it—loans it out to others so that they can buy a house, or a car, or whatever.
- Only a small amount of cash is actually kept in the bank, and this small amount is used in case people want to withdraw some bills for their wallet.
- (Like we said, this is still how banks work today. It is far better to have money in circulation, "doing work" if you will, than having it sitting in a vault. If it's loaned out, it's allowing others to make purchases, which gives other people money, which means the economy is growing. The more you know.)