Marriner Eccles held views on the Great Depression that differed from Keynes and Samuelson. Eccles believed that excessive saving could be detrimental during a recession, unlike the conventional view. He also thought the government could spend money through creating it, not depending on private profits, and that increased government spending was the only escape from depression. Eccles' famous policies as Chairman of the Federal Reserve included the FHA Act, utilizing private funds but with government protection, centralizing control over money supply through the Banking Act of 1935. His views preceded and aligned with later Keynesian general theories and Samuelson's textbook.
3. John Maynard Keynes
- An English economist
(1883-1946)
- The Keynesian theories:
- Excessive saving
- Active fiscal policy
- Wage and spending
- “Multiplier effect” and
interest rate
4. Paul Samuelson
- An American economist
(1915-2009)
- The first American to win the
Nobel Memorial Prize in
Economic Sciences
- “foremost academic economist
of the 20th century” – NY Times
6. “ … a business, like an individual, could remain free only if it kept
out of debt, and that the West itself could remain free only if it kept
out of debt to the East.”
David Eccles
(1849 – 1912)
7. The Roaring
Twenties • 1920-1929
The Great Crash • 1929
Eccles stopped a
bank run • 1931
Franklin
Roosevelt was
elected as the
President
• 1933
Eccles was
appointed as the
Chairman of the
Federal Reserve
• 1934
8. Eccles was
reappointed as Chair
of the Federal
Reserve
• 1936,
1940,
1944
Keynes published
“The General Theory
of Employment,
Interest and Money”
• 1936
Samuelson
published
“Economics: An
Introductory
Analysis”
• 1948
Eccles resigned
from the Board of
Federal Reserve and
wrote “Beckoning
Frontiers”
• 1951
9. The Great
Depression
- What most people thought ><
What Eccles’s idea
- Excessive saving can be
detrimental during a
recession
10. - The Role of Government -
The Great Depression
11. “… The government, however, can spend money,
because the government, unlike the bankers, has
the power to create money and does not have to
depend on the profit motive. The only escape from
a depression must be by increased spending. We
must depend upon the government to save what
we have of a price, profit and credit system.”
12. Eccles’s famous policies
The FHA Act
Private funds
Government
protection needed
The Banking Act of 1935
Centralize power over
open-market
Control over the
money supply