Financial Fragility and Regional Economic Growth

Although the 1980s ushered in the second-longest economic expansion in U.S. history, regional economic performance was uneven during the decade. These regional disparities were accompanied by a deterioration in the quality of bank loans and a sharp increase in the number of bank failures. Indeed, more than half of the banks that have failed since the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was founded in 1933 did so during the 1980s.