During the 1930s, Utah industrialist/banker and Federal Reserve board chairman, Marriner Eccles, used the analogy several times of a poker game to describe what was happening in the then Great Depression economy. He explained that some players were hoarding all the chips, so the rest of the players had to borrow chips to stay in the game. When they could no longer borrow chips, the game was over. Then as now, the top few held the majority of the wealth and income in the economy. This left the majority of people with not enough "chips" in the economy to keep the game going.
Mr. Eccles believed in a balanced budget, but saw that you needed a balanced economy to reach that balanced budget. Then as now, the economy was out of balance. He said, "Mass production demands mass consumption, but people can't afford to consume if the wealth … is concentrated at the top."
Those that are demanding a balanced budget need to stop and look at the whole picture. Is the U.S. budget out of balance because the government is spending too much? Or is it out of balance because our nation's economy is out of balance?
Steve Blackham
Salt Lake City