Abstract
The expression ‘pump priming’ gained nationwide vogue during the Roosevelt New Deal 1933–9. It referred to US Government spending accompanied by deficit financing to promote economic recovery from the Great Depression, which peaked in 1933 at an unemployment rate of 24.9 per cent and GNP about 30 per cent below 1929 in real terms. The expression suited F.D.R.’s political skills and innate economic and financial conservatism because so many people then used hand pumps and their experience was that pouring in a little bit of water for a short time started a copious and sustained flow in normal fashion. When the US started to become ‘the arsenal of democracy’ in 1940 and later on entered World War II, the use to the term ‘pump priming’ ended.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Copyright information
© 2018 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Keyserling, L.H. (2018). Pump Priming. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_1423
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_1423
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-95188-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-95189-5
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences