Pointless Pedantry

maestrateresa said "I'm always amused that they call them 'brokers' since they appear to be 'richers' from where I'm sitting".

Now, you should know me better than that. I can't let that one go by, especially when I have access to the OED.

broker ("br@Uk@(r)). Forms: 4-5 brocor, brokour, brocour(e, 6 brooker, brokar, 7 broaker, 5- broker. The Central Fr. equivalent was brocheor, brochiere; and the word is the agent noun of the OFr. vb. brochier, ONF. brokier (:-L. *broccare) in the sense 'to broach' or 'tap' a cask. Brocheor, brokeor stand in precisely the same relation to the n. broche, broc, and the vb. brochier, brokier, as tapster or rather the earlier tapper stand to the n. tap, and vb. to tap in Teutonic: the brocheor, brokeor, brokour, or broker, was lit. a tapster, who retailed wine 'from the tap', and hence, by extension, any retail-dealer, one who bought to sell over again, a second-hand dealer, or who bought for another, hence a jobber, middleman, agent, etc. Cf. sense of L. caupo.

I. A retailer of commodities; a second-hand dealer.
1. A retailer; Pedlar, petty dealer, monger. (Now sunk in sense 2.)
1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. vii. 95 Ghut am ich brocor of bakbytynge and blame mennes ware. 1583 Stanyhurst Aeneis i. (Arb.) 33 For gould his carcasse was sold by the broker Achilles. 1598 Marston Pigmal. i. 138 But Broker of anothers wit. 1657 J. Angier Elegy in S. Purchas Pol. Flying Ins., Brokers in verse condemn it. 1730 Young Ep. Pope i. Poems (1757) I. 183 Millions of wits, and brokers in old song.

broke (br@Uk), ppl. a.
3. slang.
a. In predicative use = broken ppl. a. 7; penniless; also broke to the wide (see wide n.) or broke to the world. Freq. with qualifying word, as clean, dead, flat broke, stone-broke (see stone n. 20), stony broke (see stony a. 6).
Cf. the following, which are properly instances of break v. 11.
[1665 Pepys Diary 6 July (1895) V. 6 It seems some of his creditors have taken notice of it, and he was like to be broke yesterday in his absence. 1669 Ibid. 12 Mar. (1896) VIII. 258 Being newly broke by running in debt.]

There you have it: the two are unrelated. "Middleman" predates "penniless" by 250 years.