Breaking the Banks in Motor City: The Auto Industry, the 1933 Detroit Banking Crisis and the Start of the New Deal »

Darwyn H. Lumley 2007-2009 president of the Society of Automotive Historians, has written for a number of automotive publications and lives in Vista, California.

This history tells the relatively unknown story of how the Detroit automobile industry played a major role in the 1933 banking crisis and the subsequent New Deal reforms that drastically changed the financial industry. Spurred by failed decision making and conflicts of interest by automobile industry leaders, Detroit banks experienced a critical emergency, precipitating the federal closure of banks on March 4, 1933, the first in a series of actions by which the federal government acquired power over economics previously held by states and private industrial and financial interests.

Introduction 1

1 More Money Needed 11

2 "Wall Street Sees Ford as a Banker" 27

3 "In the Way Our Reports Were Being Made, It Never Was Material." 45

4 "It Is Going to Be Awfully Hard Work" 63

5 "Woe unto Those by Whom It Cometh" 82

6 "Your Friends Won't Hold It Against You" 102

7 The Banking System Ceases to Function 126

Epilogue 159

Chronology 171

Notes 177

Bibliography 187

Index 191