Panic in paradise

Panic in Paradise is a comprehensive study of bank loan failures during the Florida land boom of the mid-1920s, during the years preceding the stock market crash of 1929. Florida and Georgia experienced a banking panic in 1926 when in a ten-day period in July, after uncontrollable depositor runs, 117 banks closed in the two states. Uninsured depositors lost millions, and several suicides followed the financial havoc. During the crisis in Florida bank assets fell more than $300 million in 1926 alone, and between 1926 and 1929, they declined from $943 million to $375 million. The banking…