The Wizard of Oz. was originally written as a satirical take on the economic effects of the gold standard

That's debatable: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_interpretations_of_The_Wonderful_Wizard_of_Oz#Overview One has to wonder about a successful satire that takes 70 years to be unearthed as part of a convenient way to teach highschool students about history. http://www.halcyon.com/piglet/Populism.htm seems like a fairly convincing rebuttal.