Marriner S. Eccles

[Perknose]

On the eve of the Great Depression, the distribution of wealth in America was as skewed towards the ultra-rich as it has become today, where in the space of a few short years the compensation of American CEO's has gone from 25 times the average worker's pay to 250 times.

We are now facing another catastrophic breakdown of the American economy. I heard Marriner S. Eccles, Franklin D. Roosevelt's Chairman of the Federal Reserve from November 1934 to February 1948, quoted tonight on what he believed was the underlying cause of that depression.

Sound familiar?

Instead of achieving that kind of distribution, a giant suction pump had by 1929-30 drawn into a few hands an increasing portion of currently produced wealth. This served them as capital accumulations. But by taking purchasing power out of the hands of mass consumers, the savers denied to themselves the kind of effective demand for their products that would justify a reinvestment of their capital accumulations in new plants. In consequence, as in a poker game where the chips were concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, the other fellows could stay in the game only by borrowing. When their credit ran out, the game stopped.

 

[CallMeJoe]

So you're watching Real Time too?

Sometimes Bill Maher really nails it.

 

[Perknose]

Originally posted by: CallMeJoe
So you're watching Real Time too?

Sometimes Bill Maher really nails it.

Actually watching it for the first time this entire campaign season.

And yeah, he nailed it.

 

[Moonbeam]

The right, screaming the evils of class warfare, have succeeded profoundly in just that. The clever have used the hate of the ignorant for the other to screw themselves in the ass.

Poor stupid white trash. They made their own cage.