The Economics Book

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Banking and finance

KEY THINKERS

Douglas Diamond (1953–)

Philip Dybvig (1955–)

BEFORE

1930–33 One third of all US banks fail, leading to the creation of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to insure depositors’ money.

1978 US economic historian Charles Kindleberger publishes a landmark study of bank runs, Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises.

AFTER

1987–89 At the peak of the decade-long US savings and loan crisis, US bank failures rise to a level of 200 per year.

2007–09 Thirteen countries across the world experience systemic banking crises.

During the Great Depression of the early 1930s some 9,000 US banks ...