Nemesis

Abstract

Banking crises occurred on both sides of the Atlantic during the Great Depression. Troubled universal banks were at the center of each crisis. The first U.S. banking crisis in late 1930 was caused by the failures of two large financial conglomerates. In May 1931, the collapse of Austria’s biggest universal bank triggered a series of crises that swept through Europe. Austria, Germany, Belgium, and Italy took extraordinary measures to rescue their largest universal banks. In the U.S., the Reconstruction Finance Corporation provided loans that prevented the failures of two large universal banks in 1932. However, the RFC allowed the two biggest banks in Detroit to fail in February 1933, thereby precipitating a nationwide banking panic. In contrast, Great Britain and Canada did not experience systemic banking crises despite serious economic downturns. The separation between commercial banks and securities markets in those two nations prevented financial contagion that could have undermined their entire financial systems.