Set your DVR to catch the new documentary “Marriner Eccles: Father of the Modern Federal Reserve,” premiering tonight at 9 p.m. on KUED.
The film, produced by KUED senior producer John Howe, follows Eccles from his childhood working in the family’s lumber, construction, and banking institutions through his rise to chair of the First Security Corporation. Eccles was then tapped by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to help shepherd the country through the Great Depression and the New Deal, and Eccles spent 17 years in Washington, D.C. at the Federal Reserve.
“Perhaps most importantly from my perspective as Fed Chair, he is responsible more than any other person for the fact that the United States today has an independent central bank — a central bank able to make decisions in the long-term best interest of the economy, without regard to the political pressures of the moment,” said current Fed chair Jerome H. Powell, speaking at the film’s premier.
Eccles’ time in Washington cemented his reputation as one of the leading economic thinkers of his time. Today the Federal Reserve building bears his name. His connection to the Eccles School is particularly strong, as it bears the name of his father, David Eccles, and is also home to the Marriner S. Eccles Institute for Economics and Quantitative Analysis.
The film will screen tonight at 9 p.m. on KUED, and air again on Sunday, Oct. 27 at 2 p.m.