“WASHINGTON — People are starting to make nervous jokes about pulling their money out of the shaky U.S. banks and stashing it under their mattresses instead.
But the banking crisis is no joke.
It is real — so real it risks turning the emerging recession into the biggest economic nightmare since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Not since the Great Depression have U.S. banks been so weak as the economy entered a tailspin. Banks are trying to strengthen themselves by cutting back loans to reduce their risks. But that is creating a “credit crunch” that makes the economy even weaker, because the crunch is denying many companies the money they need to conduct to expand their business.”
— From The Seattle Times, published Sunday, December 16th, 1990
