Hugh Naylor
@hughnaylor
1/5 Given the econ upheaval of late, it’s interesting to note The Wizard of Oz was seen as a populist critique of the 19th Century monetary order. Basically, a story about working Americans fighting against the shenanigans of Euro central bankers. The people’s money at the time, silver, versus the gold standard.
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Hugh Naylor
@hughnaylor
2/5 Econ historian Mel Mattison explained this on Bankless. You have 1) Scarecrow, who represents a farmer, 2) Tin Man, a factory worker, 3) Cowardly Lion, silver proponent/reformer William Bryan (Bernie of his day). And they run into Dorothy, who … https://open.spotify.com/episode/0T4KwMlIsKtA73QIDCdIYq?si=pLKMExDbSdGO2KWitzvreg
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Hugh Naylor
@hughnaylor
3/5 … arrived by tornado from humble origins, a farm in Kansas, which in the 1880s was the birthplace of the populism that formed the foundation for FDR and his movement years later. This book about that early populism movement is very good. Anyway, in The Wizard of Oz, you ….
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Hugh Naylor
@hughnaylor
4/5 … have this band of working class folk being led down a perilous path known as the Yellow Brick Road, an allusion to the gold standard. And where does it lead them? To the heart of greed: an Emerald City that’s run on the deception by the Wizard of Oz himself, an allusion to the monetary manipulation of central bankers, whose shenanigans behind the curtain get exposed by Dorothy and her worker friends. The kicker? …
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