Marriner S. Eccles’s view
on the Great Depression
In comparison with Keynes and Samuelson’s views
Marriner Eccles 1951
John Maynard Keynes 1936
Paul Samuelson 1948
John Maynard Keynes
- An English economist (1883-1946)
- The Keynesian theories:
- Excessive saving
- Active fiscal policy
- Wage and spending
- “Multiplier effect” and interest rate
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
Marriner Eccles
(1890 – 1977)
“ … 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)
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
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
The Great Depression
- What most people thought >< What Eccles’s idea
- Excessive saving can be detrimental during a recession
- The Role of Government -
The Great Depression
“… 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.”
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
Eccles’s policies
Samuelson’s textbook
Keynesian’s general theories
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