Marriner Eccles | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Eccles in 1939 | |
| 7thChairman of the Federal Reserve | |
| In office November 15, 1934 – January 31, 1948 | |
| President | Franklin D. Roosevelt Harry S. Truman |
| Deputy | John Thomas Ronald Ransom |
| Preceded by | Eugene Robert Black |
| Succeeded by | Thomas B. McCabe |
| Member of theFederal Reserve Board of Governors | |
| In office November 15, 1934 – July 14, 1951 | |
| President | Franklin D. Roosevelt Harry S. Truman |
| Preceded by | Eugene Robert Black |
| Succeeded by | Abbot Mills |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Marriner Stoddard Eccles (1890-09-09)September 9, 1890 Logan, Utah, U.S. |
| Died | December 18, 1977(1977-12-18) (aged 87) Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican[1] |
Marriner Stoddard Eccles (September 9, 1890 – December 18, 1977) was an American economist and banker who served as the 7thchairman of the Federal Reserve from 1934 to 1948. After his term as chairman, Eccles continued to serve as a member of theFederal Reserve Board of Governors until 1951.
Eccles was known during his lifetime chiefly as having been the Chairman of the Federal Reserve under PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt. He has been remembered for having anticipated and supporting the theories ofJohn Maynard Keynes relative to"inadequate aggregate spending" in the economy which appeared during his tenure.[2] As Eccles wrote in his memoirBeckoning Frontiers (1951):
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 1929–1930 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.[3]
Born inLogan, Utah toDavid and Ellen (Stoddard) Eccles, a Mormonpolygamist family, on September 9, 1890.[4] He was the eldest of the nine children by Ellen Stoddard, David Eccles' second wife. His family was extended by another twelve siblings from his father's first wife.[5] Eccles was educated at the public schools of Baker, Oregon and attendedBrigham Young College and served aLatter-day Saint mission toScotland. After his mission, while working in a family enterprise in Blacksmith Fork Canyon, he learned of the untimely death of his father.
He was subsequently able to reorganize and consolidate the assets of his father's industrialconglomerate and banking network. Eccles expanded the banking interests into a large western chain of banks called Eccles-Browning Affiliated Banks.[4] He was a millionaire by age 22. The company withstood severalbank runs during theGreat Depression and, as a leading banker, Eccles became involved with the creation of theEmergency Banking Act of 1933 and theFederal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
After a brief stint at theTreasury Department and with the support of treasury secretaryHenry Morgenthau Jr., Eccles was appointed by President Roosevelt as theChairman of the Federal Reserve. Eccles was reappointed chairman in 1936, 1940, and 1944 and served until 1948.[6] In February 1944, Roosevelt appointed Eccles for another 14-year term on the board and Eccles stayed on theboard until 1951, when he resigned a few months after the1951 Accord.[2] Eccles had also participated in post-World War IIBretton Woods negotiations that created theWorld Bank andInternational Monetary Fund.
Eccles retired toUtah in 1951 to run his companies and write his memoirs, titledBeckoning Frontiers: Public and Personal Recollections. He mounted an unsuccessful campaign for the Utah Republican senatorial nomination against incumbentArthur Watkins in 1952.[7] He further consolidated industrial and family assets, finally organizing a series of foundations representing assets that he had managed for various family members. These foundations have served Utah and theIntermountain West in support of educational, artistic, humanitarian, and scientific activities. He died inSalt Lake City, Utah in 1977 and was entombed in the Larkin Sunset Lawn Mausoleum.
In 1913, he married the former May Campbell Young. The couple did not have a happy marriage, caused partly by Eccles' lack of attention towards her, and although they were legally married 35 years until their divorce in 1948, they separated soon after the marriage and lived largely separate lives.[8] His grand-niece, Hope Eccles, is married to formerVice Chair of the Federal ReserveRandal Quarles.[9][10]
Eccles was and is seen as an early proponent of demand stimulus projects to fend off the ravages of theGreat Depression. Eccles was famously rebuked by CongresswomanJessie Sumner (R,IL) during a House of Representatives hearing on the increasingly liberal policies of the Roosevelt administration and the Federal Reserve, when she said, "you just love socialism."[11] He became known as a defender ofKeynesian ideas, though his ideas predated Keynes'The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money (1936). In that respect, he is considered by some to have seenmonetary policy having secondary importance and that as a result he allowed the Federal Reserve to be sublimated to the interests of the Treasury.
In this view, the Federal Reserve after 1935 acquired new instruments to command monetary policy, but it did not change its behavior significantly.[2] Further, his defense of the Federal Reserve-Treasury accord in 1951 is sometimes seen as a reversal of his previous policy stances.[citation needed]
Marriner Eccles received the Golden Plate Award of theAmerican Academy of Achievement, alongside his brotherGeorge S. Eccles, at the 1972 Achievement Summit in Salt Lake City.[12] TheEccles Building that houses the headquarters of theFederal Reserve inWashington, D.C. was named after Eccles in 1982. The naming was a component of theGarn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act lead-sponsored by SenatorJake Garn (R,UT) and CongressmanFernand St. Germain (D,RI).[13]
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| Government offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theFederal Reserve Board of Governors 1934–1951 | Succeeded by |
| Chairman of the Federal Reserve 1934–1948 | Succeeded by | |
