But even if we grant them that most charitable interpretation that the dog really did eat their homework. It's still their dog, which they created, when they lobbied for the gutting of the Glass-Steagall legislation in the late 1990s.

What's less obvious is where the battle lines are today. Nobody puts up a sign saying "we represent the rich and powerful", but we know that this war is never really over.

Despite record low readership, no major paper has ever stopped printing. Someone must be buying the ink.

In the words of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson: "History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit".

Looking back at the era of Huey Long, it's clear to see the establishment papers had reduced themselves to low grade gossip mills in their efforts to shut him down.

If there's anything I would fault the crypto community for, it's failure to imagine the world as it could be.

Satoshi made a snide Jacksonian challenge to the banks in his genesis block time proof, but too many crypto enthusiasts fail to envision anything more than "being rich"

The Marxists to their credit, have a very simple phrase: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs."

Now nobody has any idea how to implement it and people put a lot of despotic dictators in power thinking they did, but at least it's a goal.

An undeniable projection of Wall Street's power was in 2008 when they essentially engaged the US government in a deadly game of chicken, and won.

Whether the timing in Bush's lame duck session was intended is up for debate, but the fact is they demanded a blank check and got it

Some will argue that 2008 was an Unforeseeable Chain Reaction which Caught Everyone Off Guard.

I think this position is manifestly indefensible, and history will regard it as an arrogant and uninspired excuse.

The assassination was, as these things go, subject to debate and conspiracy theory. However, it did match the way Long had predicted his enemies would try to kill him with "one man, one gun, one bullet".

Though Long's program was diametrically opposed to that of Andrew Jackson, there are yet significant similarities between the two.

Both were highly popular, and have been called demagogues. Both fought for expanded suffrage and against monied aristocracy and monopolies.

Whether or not one man should enjoy so much power as a Long or a Jackson is a fair point of debate.

But a power far less discussed is the power to decide who is, and is not, worthy of credit. Who will be the great captain of industry and who will be the struggling businessman.

Both had their fights with Wall Street banks, with Jackson famously ending the charter of the Second Bank of the United States and ushering in a period of the US government not issuing any form of centralized paper currency - which lasted until the Civil War in 1863.

Some accuse bankers of maintaining elite assassination squads to dispatch of politicians who dare to challenge them.

This is at best idle conjecture and at worst veiled racism, but one need not believe any of it to find private banking an unconscionable centralization of power.

Furthermore, (Long charged that) Wall Street banks decided to revoke credit to the state of Louisiana on account of their dislike of Long's Share Our Wealth program.

A couple of years after this book was published, Long ran for US president but was shot before the '36 election.

Long describes in his book having been assaulted by an unknown assailant, and claimed that the J. P. Morgan company was offering reward money to whoever did it.

This kind of blatant disregard for the law is beyond even even what Long accused Standard Oil of doing.

@christian_zerfass
He became governor in 1928, as far as the reforms, yes definitely. He openly called out FDR for the weakness of his New Deal and pressed for a much more robust program, which it is believed resulted in many of the programs in the 1935-1936 Second New Deal. These include Social Security (pension), labor union rights and rural electrification. FDR even went so far as to pass a REVENUE tax which was called "The Wealth Tax Act", directly addressing Long's Share Our Wealth.

One of his arch adversaries was Standard Oil, who (it is said) bankrolled Long's impeachment after he proposed an oil refining tax.

The actual charges levied against him read more like a "tabloid bombshell" than anything worthy to be heard in a court of law, much less a senate.

This program gained significant public support and is credited with pressuring FDR into creating such programs as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and
Food Stamps as part of the 2nd New Deal.

But this proposal was not without its enemies.

After becoming a US senator, and in the depths of the depression, Long began a program called Share Our Wealth, a set of works and welfare programs which would be funded by a progressive wealth tax that would ensure nobody has more than $50mn (roughly 1bn in today's money).

Now of course this is his own words, and I'm sure he was far more shrewd and ruthless than he describes himself.

But roads, bridges, schools and hospitals speak for themselves, and apparently he built a lot of them.

His first battle was to give free textbooks to primary school students. It's amazing now to imagine that not only were poor kids excluded from school for lack of funds to buy books, but he actually encountered fierce resistance when passing that law.