Gary North

In 1929-33, before there was the FDIC, over 6,000 small banks failed in the United States.

Not one major bank failed. The Federal Reserve System saw to that.

The large banks swallows the little ones. They kept the assets -- loans -- and got none of the liabilities: deposits. The rural depositors lost their savings but still owed the money. The banks foreclosed on anyone who could not pay.

That was a calculated strategy. It was great for big banks.

The story of these bank failures has been passed down to the grandchildren of the losers. A few of the grandchildren still worry about bank failures, despite the FDIC, despite the fact that the FED regulates all banks.

These people are worried about bank failures of major banks. There has not been a bank failure of a major bank since 1914.

The threat is the erosion of the dollar, not a bank failure. The bogeyman of bank failures is used by the FED to justify its policy of inflation. This strategy has worked ever since 1933.

I have tried for 30 years to persuade my readers that there is zero possibility of a bank failure, other than a general and complete failure of the interbank payments system, which would kill a billion people -- the collapse of the division of labor. It is possible but unlikely.

Your money should be deposited in the bank where you want to have personal contact with the person in charge of real estate foreclosures. Your money serves as a mark of your ability to take a foreclosed property on a non-money-down basis.