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The banking collapse cried aloud for immediate action. Congress pulled itself together, and in an incredible eight hours had the Emergency Banking Relief Act of 1933 ready for Roosevelt's pen. The new law clothed the President with power to regulate banking transactions and foreign exchange, and to reopen solvent banks.
Roosevelt next turned to the radio to deliver the first of his famous "Fireside Chats". As some 35,000,000 people hung on his words, he gave assurances that it was now safer to keep money in a reopened bank than "under the mattress". Confidence returned with a gush, and the banks began to unlock their doors.
The Emergency or Hundred Days Congress buttressed public reliance on the banking system by enacting the memorable Glass-Steagall Banking Reform Act. This measure provided for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which insured individual deposits up to $5000 (later $10,000).
Roosevelt moved swiftly elsewhere on the financial front, seeking to protect the melting gold reserve and to prevent panic. He ordered all private holdings of gold to be surrendered to the Treasury in exchange for paper currency, and then took the nation off the gold standard. The Emergency Congress responded to his recommendation by canceling the gold-payment clause in all contracts and authorizing repayment in paper money. A "managed currency" was well on its way.
Early in 1934 Roosevelt reduced the value of the gold content of the dollar to 59,06 cents, in accordance with authority granted by Congress. His theory was that this tinkering with the currency would stimulate business through controlled inflation. Prices did rise somewhat, but not in proportion to the change in the value of the currency.
