Utah Banker Marriner S. Eccles Helped Design FDR’s New Deal

Jeffrey D. Nichols History Blazer, March 1995 The Great Depression lasted from 1929 until war production revived the economy in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Although conservative economists argued that the depression reflected normal cycles and should not be addressed with extraordinary measures, the high levels of unemployment and general suffering forced policymakers to seek new approaches. One of …

Marriner Eccles

(1890–1977) Eccles built First Security Corp., the nation’s first multibank holding company, which laid the foundation for a business-financial empire that continues to be the leading support of public service projects in Utah. His farsighted monetary policies caught the eye of President Franklin Roosevelt, and Eccles became one of the architects of Roosevelt’s New Deal efforts to end the Great …