A More Worrying Comparison between Deutsche Bank and Northern Rock Is with the Credit-Anstalt Crisis of May 1931

Returning to the subject of bank relationships, a more worrying comparison between Deutsche Bank and the Northern Rock episode could be with the Credit-Anstalt crisis of May 1931. It was the largest bank in Austria, just as Deutsche is the largest in Germany, a far larger country with a more important economy. Then in Austria and today in Germany, European economies were tipping into recession, forcing large losses onto their banks. Following the 1931 crisis, within months not only Austria but other European countries endured financial distress, the gold exchange standard began to disintegrate, and the international flow of goods was disrupted by growing protectionism as governments tried to batten down the hatches.

The flight of foreign creditors triggered by these events rapidly turned a major crisis in a minor country into a major crisis for all Europe and beyond. Today, if the same fate were to happen to Deutsche Bank, not only would it be on a far larger scale, but there is the additional question of the gross notional value of its derivatives book of nearly $50 trillion and the future of the euro itself. Is it any wonder, if Deutsche is indeed at the centre of last week’s repo crisis, that other major banks,  have decided to step back and refused to accept its collateral in a repo?

—Alasdair Macleod, “The Ghosts of Failed Banks Have Returned,” in Anatomy of the Crash: The Financial Crisis of 2020, ed. Tho Bishop (Auburn, AL: Mises Institute, 2020), 58-59.