United States: value of commercial and savings bank deposits 1920-1940

Over the course of the 1920s, the value of money deposited in commercial banks grew at a fairly steady rate, rising from around 19 billion U.S. dollars in 1921 (the initial dip was due to the post-WWI recession), to 25 billion at the end of the decade. However, the onset of the Great Depression saw these figures drop drastically, and the value of deposits fell from around 26 to 16 billion dollars between 1930 and 1933. This was not only due to high unemployment and lower wages, but many Americans also lost faith in the banks during the Depression - many blamed the banks for the Depression as frivolous lending practices had contributed to the Wall Street Crash; banks demanded early repayment of debts and often repossessed the property of those who could not afford to do so (also leading to evictions), and many banks failed after the Crash and were not perceived as safe. It was not until 1936 where deposits in commercial banks returned to their pre-Depression levels, after the Roosevelt administration put a number of safeguards in place and helped restore public faith in the American banking system.In contrast to commercial banks, the total amount of money deposited in savings accounts continued to rise throughout the Great Depression, albeit at a much slower rate than in the 1920s. The reason for continued increase was due to the disproportionate impact the Depression had across socioeconomic groups - most working and middle-class Americans did not have the means to have a savings account在二十世纪二十年代期间，商业银行存款的价值以相当稳定的速度增长，从1921年（初期下降是由于第一次世界大战后的经济衰退）的约190亿美元上升至该十年末的250亿美元。然而，随着大萧条的来临，这些数字急剧下降，存款价值在1930年至1933年之间从约260亿美元降至160亿美元。这一现象不仅归因于高失业率和工资降低，而且在萧条期间，许多美国人对银行的信任度下降——许多人指责银行是导致大萧条的原因，因为它们轻率地放贷，加剧了华尔街股市的崩溃；银行要求提前偿还债务，并经常收回那些无力偿还者的财产（这也导致了驱逐），在大崩溃之后，许多银行倒闭，并且不被视为安全。直到1936年，在罗斯福政府实施了一系列保障措施并帮助恢复公众对美国银行体系的信心之后，商业银行的存款才恢复到大萧条前的水平。与商业银行形成对比的是，在大萧条期间，储蓄账户中的存款总额持续增长，尽管增长速度远低于二十年代。这一持续增长的原因是大萧条对社会经济各阶层产生了不成比例的影响——大多数工人和中产阶级美国人没有能力开设储蓄账户。