Roosevelt began that first address simply: “I want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking.” He went on to explain his recent decision to close the nation’s banks in order to stop a surge in mass withdrawals by panicked investors worried about possible bank failures. Roosevelt gives his first national radio address-or “fireside chat”-broadcast directly from the White House. On March 12, 1933, eight days after his inauguration, President Franklin D.
