I’ve just come back from lunch with Liam Halligan, the economics editor of Channel 4 news. Bit of a catch up, networky type thing. Anyway, as we were chatting he mentioned to me a speech he’d made in Japan explaining that the Wizard of Oz was actually all about the Gold standard (the yellow brick road) and deflation.
In fact the whole thing, it is argued by some, is all about money and politics e.g. Toto is a prohibitionist apparently. Don’t know about you but it puts the Munchkins in a whole new light to me. Next thing you know it’ll turn out Silence of the Lambs is actually a skit on Barclaycard’s lending policy!
According to one site I found this is who the characters represent (some of it requires a serious knowledge of US history)
• DOROTHY = Traditional American values
• TOTO = Prohibitionist party, also called the Teetotallers
• SCARECROW = Farmers
• TIN WOODSMAN = Industrial workers
• COWARDLY LION = William Jennings Bryan
• MUNCHKINS = Citizens of the East
• WICKED WITCH OF THE EAST = Grover Cleveland
• WICKED WITCH OF THE WEST = William McKinley
• WIZARD = Marcus Alonzo Hanna, the Chairman of the Republican Party
• OZ = Abbreviation for an ounce of gold
• YELLOW BRICK ROAD = Gold standard
PS. Try a websearch putting the ‘Wizard of Oz’ and ‘deflation’ in the search box, you’ll find lots of info.
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