Much has been written about The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum as an allegory for monetary policy. At the time it was written in the late 1890s, the country had been ravaged by deflation and William Jennings Bryan was running for President on a platform that, among other things, advocated “free silver” or bimetallism as a method of stimulating economic growth. Back then there was no Federal Reserve and we were on the gold standard. The Treasury could increase the amount of official silver coinage as a powerful and unconventional way to juice the money supply. How quaint. According to the scholarly literary criticism, Dorothy represents the “America-honest everyman” , the Kingdom of Oz is Washington D.C. and the Wizard is the President. Dorothy must travel the Yellow Brick Road, signifying gold and have an audience with the Wiz who supposedly has the power to get her back to Kansas.
Read the rest: Thoughts on the Great and Powerful Oz
Oh - You're a very bad man!
Oh, no my dear. I'm a very good man. I'm just a very bad Wizard
L. Frank Baum
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Harlan Ellison