Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who took office in 1933, increased the RFC's funding, streamlined the bureaucracy, and used it to help restore business prosperity, especially in banking and railroads. He appointed Texas banker Jesse H. Jones to lead the agency, and Jones turned the RFC into an empire with loans made in every state. Under the New Deal, the powers of the RFC were greatly expanded. The agency now purchased bank stock and extended loans for agriculture, housing, exports, businesses, governments, and disaster relief. Roosevelt soon directed the RFC to buy gold to change its market price. The original legislation did not call for identities of the banks receiving loans nor of any reports to Congress. This, however, was changed in July 1932 to make the RFC transparent. Bankers soon were hesitant to ask the RFC for a loan since the public would become aware and begin to consider the possibility of their bank failing causing them to withdraw their deposits. The RFC also ha...
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