In the modern era, schemes like the FDIC ensure that even if a bank fails, depositors can recover their funds. Interconnectedness and Business Failures Banks did not fail in a vacuum; they were deeply embedded in the broader economy.
How Federal Reserve Policy Exacerbated Bank Failures During the Great Depression
News of a single bank failure would travel quickly, prompting depositors in seemingly healthy institutions to rush to withdraw their money. During the Great Depression, however, the word "bank" in "bank run" was tragically literal.
Many of these loans were secured by business inventory or real estate, values that evaporated as the Depression took hold. For debtors, this was disastrous: the real value of their debts increased even as their incomes vanished, leading to more foreclosures and business failures.
How Federal Reserve Policy Exacerbated Bank Failures During the Great Depression
h2>The Initial Shock and the Domino Effect The immediate catalyst for the bank runs was the stock market crash of October 1929. Between 1930 and 1933, nearly 11,000 of the nation's 25,000 banks vanished, taking savings and credit availability with them.
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