Journal Article
The Free-Banking Era: A Lesson for Today?
Sanches, Daniel R. (2016-07)
Reaching back to a volatile era in U.S. banking history, Daniel Sanches finds insight for today?s challenge of ensuring a stable banking system ? though perhaps not the lesson one might expect.
Economic Insights , Volume 1 , Issue 3 , Pages 9-14

Journal Article
The Failure of the Bank of the Commonwealth: An Early Example of Interest Rate Risk
Prescott, Edward Simpson (2024-03-25)
This Economic Commentary describes the collapse and subsequent bailout of the Detroit-headquartered Bank of the Commonwealth in 1972. Commonwealth failed because it invested heavily in long-duration, fixed-rate municipal securities in the mid-1960s in a bet that interest rates would decline. Instead, with the beginning of the Great Inflation of 1965–1980, rates rose. Liquidity problems then ensued, and the bank approached failure. Unable to find an acquirer because of Michigan’s banking restrictions, regulators instead bailed out the bank because of fears of contagion. This article also ...
Economic Commentary , Volume 2024 , Issue 06 , Pages 9