America Had No Bank Insurance Until 1933, What Happened When Your Bank Failed?

Before 1934, if your bank failed, your savings were simply gone. No insurance, no government office to call, no promise from Washington. This is how America lived without deposit insurance, and how one winter of closed banks changed everything. From wildcat bank notes and bank note reporters to the panics of 1893 and 1907, the state deposit guarantee funds of Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and Texas, the collapse of the Bank of United States in December 1930, about nine thousand bank suspensions, Michigan's bank holiday, Roosevelt's national bank holiday and first fireside chat, and the Banking Act of 1933 that created the FDIC ($2,500 of coverage in January 1934, $5,000 by June) - and why today's $250,000 limit still has edges. Chapters 0:00 The doors that did not open 1:50 When every bank printed its own money 4:18 The run, and the panics of 1893 and 1907 7:03 The states that tried to insure deposits 9:18 The Bank of United States 11:16 Nine thousand banks 13:25 Michigan goes dark and Roosevelt closes every bank 15:42 The fireside chat 17:21 Glass-Steagall and the FDIC 20:19 Your account today In collaboration with Surviving Old America and Why It Stopped. Sources: FDIC history (A Brief History of Deposit Insurance; FDIC historical timeline), Federal Reserve History (Banking Panics of 1930-31, the Emergency Banking Act and bank holiday of 1933, the Panic of 1907), Federal Reserve Bank of New York research on the 1933 bank holiday. Archive films (Internet Archive / Prelinger Archives / Universal Newsreels / U.S. government films, public domain): Extra! Special! Roosevelt Inaugurated 1933/03/05 https://archive.org/details/1933-03-05_Ext... Money Stream Flow From Treasury 1933/03/20 https://archive.org/details/1933-03-20_Mon... Plow that Broke the Plains, The https://archive.org/details/0315_Plow_that... President Roosevelt's Emergency Bank Bill Passed By Congress 1933/03/09 https://archive.org/details/1933-03-09_Pre... Sorting, Checking and Packing Grocery Orders in Self-Serve Store https://archive.org/details/0904_Sorting_C... The World at War, 1931-1941 (NARA) https://catalog.archives.gov/id/38726 U.S. Thrilled As President Outlines Recovery Progress, 1933/10/23 https://archive.org/details/1933-10-23_Pre... Universal Newsreel Volume 2, Release 29 https://archive.org/details/un-un-v2-r29-s2 Using the Bank https://archive.org/details/Usingthe1947 Wheat Farmer, The https://archive.org/details/0234_Wheat_Far... Work of the Stock Exchange https://archive.org/details/0552_Work_of_t... [Griffith Park Relief Workers Demonstration] https://archive.org/details/Griffith1933 Photographs and documents: Library of Congress, U.S. National Archives, FDIC, Smithsonian NMAH and Wikimedia Commons (public domain). Creative Commons photos (attribution): 2013 Federal Reserve Bank of New York from west - Beyond My Ken (CC BY-SA 4.0) 2015 Federal Reserve Bank of New York from west - Beyond My Ken (CC BY-SA 4.0) 3003 West Tasman Drive entrance 2, Santa Clara, California - Minh Nguyen (CC BY-SA 4.0) 3003 West Tasman Drive entrance, Santa Clara, California - Minh Nguyen (CC BY-SA 4.0) Guardian Building, Griswold Street, Detroit, MI - 5302723649 - w_lemay (CC BY-SA 2.0) ILGWU Joint Board Dressmakers Union show their support for L - Kheel Center (CC BY 2.0) Morgan Library McKim Building from west - Beyond My Ken (CC BY-SA 4.0) Rally of thousands during the 1933 Dressmakers' Strike in Ne - Kheel Center (CC BY 2.0) Silicon Valley Bank, Temple, Arizona - Tony Webster (CC BY 2.0) Archive film and photographs: Prelinger Archives, U.S. National Archives, Library of Congress and Wikimedia Commons (public domain unless noted). Life Without It, how Americans lived before the systems we rely on. #history #americanhistory #documentary #LifeWithoutIt