Banking

<p>A Scottish émigré became the most powerful man in the French government, and sold hundreds of thousands of shares in land holdings in the Mississippi Valley</p>

<p>S &amp; L scandals, junk bonds, defaults: The pattern is familiar to anyone who knows about U.S. banking between 1830 and 1855.</p>

<p><span class="deck">A 19th-century blueprint for the savings-and-loan scandal</span></p>

<p><span class="deck">Speculators caused a stock market crash in 1792, forcing the federal government to bail out New York bankers— and the nation.</span></p>

<p>Why have thousands of U.S. banks failed over the years? The answers are in our history and politics.</p>