MARRINER ECCLES

If there were no debts in our money system, there wouldn't be any money.

We shall either adopt a plan which will meet the problem of unemployment under capitalism or a plan will be adopted for us which will operate without capitalism.

A policy of adequate governmental outlays at a time when private enterprises is curtailing its expenditures does not reflect a preference for an unbalanced budget. It merely reflects a desire and the need to put idle men, money and material to work.

As mass production has to be accompanied by mass consumption, mass consumption, in turn, implies a distribution of wealth—not of existing wealth, but of wealth as it is currently produced—to provide men with buying power equal to the amount of goods and services offered by the nation's economic machinery.

The Fed [Federal Reserve System], whether it likes it or not, is required to provide adequate reserves to the banking system in order for the government to finance its needs, even when that is inflationary.

The United States economy is like a poker game where the chips have become concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, and where the other fellows can stay in the game only by borrowing. When their credit runs out the game will stop.

As mass production has to be accompanied by mass consumption, mass consumption, in turn, implies a distribution of wealth ... to provide men with buying power. ... 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. ... The other fellows could stay in the game only by borrowing. When their credit ran out, the game stopped.

The only way we could get out of the depression was through government action in placing purchasing power in the hands of people who were in need of it.

There is no limit to the amount of money that can be created by the banking system, but there are limits to our productive facilities and our labor supply ...

[When FDR was considering appointing Eccles, there was a great deal of opposition. Many Democrats opposed the nomination as Eccles had been a banker and was a Republican. Many Republicans saw him as a 'traitor to his class.' The President shared the information on the formidable opposition but told Eccles he 'didn't give a damn.' Well, Mr. President, if you don't give a damn, I don't see why I should.

A policy of adequate governmental outlays at a time when private enterprises is curtailing its expenditures does not reflect a preference for an unbalanced budget. It merely reflects a desire and the need to put idle men, money and material to work.

I find some pleasure in noting that if I was a traitor to my class, I earned this distinction long before Franklin Roosevelt was called one.

As mass production has to be accompanied by mass consumption, mass consumption, in turn, implies a distribution of wealth—not of existing wealth, but of wealth as it is currently produced—to provide men with buying power equal to the amount of goods and services offered by the nation's economic machinery.

The Fed [Federal Reserve System], whether it likes it or not, is required to provide adequate reserves to the banking system in order for the government to finance its needs, even when that is inflationary.

The only way we could get out of the depression was through government action in placing purchasing power in the hands of people who were in need of it.

There is no limit to the amount of money that can be created by the banking system, but there are limits to our productive facilities and our labor supply ...

We shall either adopt a plan which will meet the problem of unemployment under capitalism or a plan will be adopted for us which will operate without capitalism.

[When FDR was considering appointing Eccles, there was a great deal of opposition. Many Democrats opposed the nomination as Eccles had been a banker and was a Republican. Many Republicans saw him as a 'traitor to his class.' The President shared the information on the formidable opposition but told Eccles he 'didn't give a damn.' Well, Mr. President, if you don't give a damn, I don't see why I should.

The United States economy is like a poker game where the chips have become concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, and where the other fellows can stay in the game only by borrowing. When their credit runs out the game will stop.

If there were no debts in our money system, there wouldn't be any money.

As mass production has to be accompanied by mass consumption, mass consumption, in turn, implies a distribution of wealth ... to provide men with buying power. ... 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. ... The other fellows could stay in the game only by borrowing. When their credit ran out, the game stopped.