FLOATING A “LIFEBOAT”: THE BANQUE DE FRANCE AND THE CRISIS OF 1889

Eugene White (), Pierre Hautcoeur and Angelo Riva

Departmental Working Papers from Rutgers University, Department of Economics

Abstract: 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 was formed, penalizing those who had participated in the copper speculation that had caused the crisis bringing the bank down. Creation of the syndicate and other actions were consistent with mitigating the moral hazard from such an intervention. This episode contrasts the advice given by Bagehot to the Bank of England to counter a panic by lending freely at a high rate on good collateral, allowing insolvent institutions to fail.

Keywords: crisis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 20 pages
Date: 2014-05-25
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cba, nep-his, nep-hpe and nep-mac
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published Previously circulated as NBER working paper no. 20083

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Related works:
Journal Article: Floating a “lifeboat”: The Banque de France and the crisis of 1889 (2014)
Working Paper: Floating a "lifeboat": The Banque de France and the crisis of 1889 (2014)
Working Paper: Floating a "lifeboat": The Banque de France and the crisis of 1889 (2014)
Working Paper: Floating a "Lifeboat": The Banque de France and the Crisis of 1889 (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rut:rutres:201405

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