What causes a bank to fail? The most basic explanation is simply that it runs out of money. But there are a lot of ways for banks to lose money, and understanding what causes these institutional failures can help you get a clearer picture of economic perils in our current moment.

In the six lectures of Understanding Bank Crises and Contagion, author and lecturer Kathleen Day illuminates the inner workings of banking to reveal why financial institutions fail and how banking crises can have a powerful ripple effect not just on individuals, but on communities, industries, and even the global economy. From the Great Depression to the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, you will get a historical overview of bank crises in the United States and see how the government has created regulations and institutions in an attempt to mitigate the dangers of these crises, often with very mixed results.

While each bank failure is unique, they also share many characteristics. With so many similarities to learn from, why do we continue to experience these financial crises again and again? As you explore the realities of banking in the 20th and 21st centuries, you will see why these avoidable catastrophes keep happening and what they reveal about the realities of financial risk and accountability—revealing who really shoulders the responsibility for maintaining these “too-big-to-fail” institutions.