Fighting Financial Crises examines the past for a fuller understanding of how historical episodes of crises were addressed. We investigate how panics during the National Banking Era played out and how they were eventually quelled and prevented. We survey of the period’s “information environment,” trace the development of national bank notes, checks, and clearing houses and show how the key to keeping order was to disseminate information very carefully. We isolate effective responses based on the framework of the National Banking Era and then consider government and related agency reactions to the recent crisis to emphasize actions that work.
