The Banking Crisis (RLE Banking & Finance)

CHAPTER VII.—THE PANIC BEGINS

THE PSEUDO-REVIVAL OF 1932

The threads of the narrative can now be woven together. The month of June, 1932, marked the culmination of the runs on the dollar from abroad. The earmarking of a final $50,000,000 in gold by the Bank of France at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York gave a dramatic finis to the foreign withdrawals.

The Administration's relief measures also became most effective in stemming the bank failure epidemic and the hoarding panic at this time. It is true that, after an initial success, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and the other “shot-in-the-arm” relief measures seemed to break down early in June with the outbreak of a severe bank failure epidemic in the city of Chicago that quickly affected ...