Business-oriented conservatives explained the recession by arguing that the New Deal had been very hostile to business expansion in 1935–1937, had threatened massive antitrust legal attacks on big corporations and by the huge strikes caused by the organizing activities of the CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations) and the AF of L (American Federation of Labor). The recovery was explained by the conservatives in terms of the diminishing of those threats sharply after 1938. For example, the antitrust efforts fizzled out without major cases. The CIO and AF of L unions started battling each other more than corporations, and tax policy became more favorable to long-term growth.