When faced with a run on a "systemically important" but insolvent bank in 1889, the Banque de France pre-emptively organized a lifeboat to ensure that depositors were protected and an orderly liquidation could proceed. To protect the Banque from losses on its lifeboat loan, a guarantee syndicate...

Recent American and European financial crises prompt the questions: under what conditions do crises end, when does a rescue plan crystallize, and how does a rescue happen? I examine a successful rescue operation in the worst pre-Federal Reserve financial crisis, the Panic of 1907, with these...

In this paper I analyze the London Monetary and Economic Conference of 1933, an almost forgotten episode in U.S. monetary history. I study how the Conference shaped dollar policy during the second half of 1933 and early 1934. I use daily data to investigate the way in which the Conference and...