Skip to main content

The Big Bust: The 1930–33 Banking Collapse—Its Causes, Its Lessons

  • Chapter
The Financial Services Revolution

Part of the book series: Innovations in Financial Markets and Institutions ((IFMI,volume 1))

Abstract

Public policy failings, not bank mismanagement, caused the 1930–33 banking collapse. These public policy failings unnecessarily exposed the American banking system to excessive monetary and structural risks in the absence of which the banking system would not have collapsed. To make this case, this paper is divided into three major sections. The first establishes a framework to explain why the banking collapse occurred. The second applies this framework to American banking history from 1920 to the 1933 bank holiday. The paper closes with seven lessons for today that can be drawn from this research.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Benston, George J. “Interest Payments on Demand Deposits and Bank Investment Behavior.” Journal of Political Economy (October 1964): 431–39.

    Google Scholar 

  • Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Banking and Monetary Statistics, 1914–1941. Washington, D.C., 1943.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bureau of the Census. Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, Bicentennial Edition. Washington, D.C., 1975.

    Google Scholar 

  • Federal Reserve System. Report of the Federal Reserve Committee on Branch, Group, and Chain Banking. Washington, D.C., 1932.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fisher, Irving. Booms and Depressions. New York: Adelphi Co., 1932.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fisher, Irving. “The Debt-Inflation Theory of Great Depressions.” Econometrica 1 (October 1933).

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedman, Milton, and Schwartz, Anna J. A Monetary History of the United States, 1867–1960. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  • Green, Steven L. “The Abrogation of Gold Clauses in 1933 and Its Relation to Current Controversies in Monetary Economics.” Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Economic Review (July 1986): 1–17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jamison, A. B., and Mackintosh, W. A. Chartered Banking in Canada. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1979.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maisel, Sherman J., ed. Risk and Capital Adequacy in Commercial Banks. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meltzer, Alan H. “Monetary and Other Explanations of the Start of the Great Depression.” Journal of Monetary Economics 2 (November 1976): 455–71.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Minsky, Hyman P. “Can ‘It’ Happen Again?” In Banking and Monetary Studies. Edited by Deane Carson. Homewood, 111.: R. D. Irwin, 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peach, W. Nelson. The Security Affiliates of National Banks. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1941.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, Lawrence H. Free Banking in Britain: Theory, Experience and Debate, 1800–1845. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wigmore, Barrie A. The Crash and Its Aftermath. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1985.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wigmore, Barrie A. “Was the Bank Holiday of 1933 a Run on the Dollar Rather than on the Banks?” Unpublished manuscript, 1986.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors

Editor information

Catherine England Thomas Huertas

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1988 The Casto Institute

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Ely, B. (1988). The Big Bust: The 1930–33 Banking Collapse—Its Causes, Its Lessons. In: England, C., Huertas, T. (eds) The Financial Services Revolution. Innovations in Financial Markets and Institutions, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3277-7_3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3277-7_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-7971-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-3277-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics