I've read that book. My professor suggested using it as toilet paper after we were done, and I agreed with him.
The Great Depression bank runs were not caused by people trying to swap their cash for gold. Because you couldn't...after 1913 banks generally did not maintain their reserves in gold, and they certainly did not maintain local reserves in gold. At best you could get a promissory note for a representative amount of gold. The fiction that you could actually swap out cash for gold is one of the more bizarre historical conspiracies.
The bank runs stopped because the FDIC was created in 1934 to guarantee depositors' savings accounts. Until then, depositors risked losing their savings when a bank collapsed, which is why bank runs were a thing.
The Great Depression bank runs were not caused by people trying to swap their cash for gold. Because you couldn't...after 1913 banks generally did not maintain their reserves in gold, and they certainly did not maintain local reserves in gold. At best you could get a promissory note for a representative amount of gold. The fiction that you could actually swap out cash for gold is one of the more bizarre historical conspiracies.
The bank runs stopped because the FDIC was created in 1934 to guarantee depositors' savings accounts. Until then, depositors risked losing their savings when a bank collapsed, which is why bank runs were a thing.