The Wizard of Oz: the movie is about bankers

As a resident of Kansas, working with East Coast mortgage bankers, I often hear, "Hey Ted, how is Dorothy?" I tend to respond to their cute reference to Kansas, with a dose of banker-reality. 

The movie they would be referring to - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, publication date, May 17, 1900, written by L. Frank Baum - is more about them, as East Coast financiers, than it is about me as a resident of Kansas. And, as one might assume, the East Coast financiers I speak with, those who refer to "Dorothy," never really "get" my response. 

The Wizard of Oz - OZ. OZ is the abbreviation for "ounce." An ounce is a unit of mass, weight, or volume. An ounce of gold. An ounce of silver. The yellow brick road represents gold. Dorothy's silver slippers represent silver. Gold and silver are measured in ounces. Hence, OZ. The Wizard of Oz.

Dorothy leads an afflicted-yet-unsophisticated group of everyday Americans in her coalition, as they are off to see the Wizard. So who is this Wizard of Oz anyway? 

This Wizard of Oz that Dorothy is off to see in Emerald City - i.e., in Washington D.C. - is the President of the United States. Purported to be all-powerful. Yet, the Wizard is actually short in stature. 

The Wizard does not actually control the money supply in the United States. So the entire subject of gold - and/or of silver - the money supply. It's pretty much outside of the jurisdiction of the Wizard of Oz anyway. More specifically, how the money supply is handled in the United States, for the most part, technically falls outside of the realm of the President of the United States. 

The Wizard is short, in the movie, and the Wizard hides behind a curtain. A dog from Kansas named Toto pulls back the curtain on the Wizard. See, the Wizard is not the real solution to the banker-induced monetary challenges faced by Midwest farmers, and by Midwest factory workers. The Wizard does not control the money supply in the United States. Nor can the Wizard provide a solution.

Dorothy is from Kansas; it is true. And Dorothy represents the everyday woman. Why Kansas? Movoto, 10 Kansas Stereotypes That Are Completely Accurate, "...Kansans are friendlier than any other state from one coast to the other."

What about the tornado? Kansas is synonymous with tornadoes. And Dorothy is from Kansas. The tornado represents the economic and the monetary upheaval of the day. Dorothy's Kansas house lands on the Wicked Witch of the East. And Dorothy's house killed that Wicked Witch. The Witch Dorothy's house kills, who is that Witch? That Wicked Witch represents East Coast bankers. 

In Dorothy's coalition, there is a Scarecrow. The Scarecrow is representative of Midwest farmers. 

There is a Tin Woodsman too. The Tin Woodsman is representative of workers-of-the-day. Those who worked in the factories. The factories which were closed and shuttered as the economy stalled. The workers - represented as the Tin Woodsman - lost their jobs. 

The munchkins? The munchkins were the common people of the day. The everyman. The everywoman. 

Emerald City. That would be Washington, D.C.

There is a Cowardly Lion in Dorothy's coalition as well. The Cowardly Lion is representative of politicians. More specifically, of William Jennings Bryant. 

William Jennings Bryant was a member of the United States House of Representatives - and a Progressive Democrat - from Nebraska. Born in Illinois, Bryant is a Midwesterner. Bryant had been a three-time nominee - nominated by the Democratic Party - to run for President of the United States; in 1896, 1900, and 1908. Bryant lost in each of the three aforementioned Presidential elections.

L. Frank Baum wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900. The year was 1900...the same year William Jennings Bryant pursued the Presidency of the United States, for the second time (Bryant lost)

Baum was a Republican from South Dakota. Baum and William Jennings Bryant - a Democrat from Nebraska - each favored tying the supply of money in the United States, not to gold. But rather, to silver. 

Here is why. 

At the beginning of the 20th Century, silver was more readily available in the Midwest than was gold. That is because silver was mined here in the Midwest. Of the top five states in which silver is mined, two of them would be Texas and Minnesota.

Whereas a money supply based upon gold - even though the supply of money in the United States is not actually tied to gold, but rather, to the Federal Reserve Bank - could more easily be manipulated by the powerful banks located on the East Coast, and the powerful banks located on the West Coast. i.e., by the Wicked Witch of the East, and by the Wicked Witch of the West.

If you recall, Dorothy would only remain safe on the yellow brick road if Dorothy were to wear her silver slippers. The yellow brick road represents gold. Gold...not safe. And Dorothy's slippers? Those slippers were silver. Silver was good. Silver was safe.

A money supply in the United States based upon silver - not gold - was the preference of L. Frank Baum. It was also the preference of William Jennings Bryant. And of the Populist Movement. The Midwest being, a Populist Movement catalyst at the turn of the 20th Century. Bryant and Baum were from the Midwest.

The powerful banks at the beginning of the 20th Century were located on the East Coast and on the West Coast. Those banks liberalized lending standards in order to increase the use of borrowed money in the economy. The munchkins borrowed. The munchkins borrowed lots of money. Then, those banks foreclosed on munchkin family farms, and on munchkin-owned Midwest homes. Foreclosed, when the economy stalled. When the munchkins were unable to repay their bank loans.

The Wicked Witch of the West really liked the idea of destroying Dorothy. She was wicked. Yet the Wicked Witch of the West was herself destroyed...by a bucket of water. Rain. 

Water is that which destroyed the Wicked Witch of the West. Water is emblematic of that which ended the drought in the Midwest. Rain. 

It rains. No drought. The crops grow. Crops grow, power shifts back to Midwest farmers. As the leverage West Coast banks once held over Midwest farmers is reduced. By way of a good crop. Thus, reducing the stranglehold, West Coast bankers had on Midwest farmers. 

There is the Good Witch of the North in the 1939 movie - Glinda. Glinda was a very powerful witch. Yet even Glinda feared the Wicked Witch of the West. 

Glinda, in the original novel, is the Witch from the South. An interesting tidbit...Glinda is from the north in the 1939 movie. And Glinda is from the South, in the original novel. 

The South, too - Glinda, in the novel - had good reason to prefer not to be part of a monetary system manipulated by East Coast bankers and by West Coast bankers. Glinda spoke to how powerful Dorothy's silver slippers really were. Silver. Beware, East Coast Bankers. Beware, West Coast bankers. Beware a monetary system, tied to gold. Silver is safer.

In the 1902 stage adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, the Tin Woodsman reflects upon what we would all do if we actually ran out of oil one day. To which the Scarecrow's response was..."You wouldn't be as badly off as John D. Rockefeller. He'd lose six thousand dollars a minute if that happened."

Wall Street elite. East Coast Bankers. "Big Oil" (in the 1902 play). West Coast bankers. The supply of money in the United States. The Wizard of Oz is not about Kansas. Kansas is just where the pragmatic young girl in the famous movie was from. The movie is about the financial system. The banking system. And the movie is about the manipulation of that financial system by Wall Street elite. Manipulated, to the detriment of the Scarecrow, the munchkins, the Lion, and the Tin Woodsman.