The Great Depression and the "New Deal" In 1932 almost 1500 banks failed, 32,00 businesses closed their doors and one-fourth of the labor force in the United States was unemployed. In that same year Franklin Delanore Roosevelt was elected president. He took office in 1933 with the economy and the nation in a severe depression. For the first three years of the Great Depression the government did very little to help the economy to recover. This all changed when FDR and his democratic administration took control. This administration initiated the "New Deal." This program brought together the federal and the stat