A SHORT HISTORY OF FLORIDA BANKING

from Richard Silvestri

A September 19, 1993 Sun-Sentinel headline reads: 1926 Miami, The Blow that Broke the Boom. I had heard the stories from Dad how that storm had destroyed his and the fortune of thousands of others. The biggest reason given by historians-and Dad-was that people had wildly speculated in land in pyramid-scheme fashion. They concluded with how the 1926 Miami hurricane collapsed the whole Florida real estate market, because in a blink of the eye people became fearful and dumped their properties on the market while buyers headed back north. In Only Yesterday, written in the 1930s, Frederick Lewis Allen also explained the Florida real estate collapse citing that hurricane and the Prince Vladimir capsized by it and blocking the Port of Miami’s shipping channel, and a Florida East Coast Railway embargo, all of which were the final blows to Florida’s economy and major factor in creating the Great Depression. Allen’s book has been a reference for historians writing of The Great Depression. But they were wrong because he, the other historians and Dad did not know the true story locked away for over 50 years. Raymond Vickers, an attorney with a PhD in Economics, is an adjunct history professor at FSU. He wrote in 1994 Panic in Paradise, Florida’s Banking Crash of 1926. Vickers recounts the incredulous Florida banking laws which outlaw transparency of bank examiner findings of Florida banks. Not until a bank has failed can its records become public-but only after 50 years, thus explaining the copyright date of his book. He revealed outright theft of depositor’s money-money from Dad, my wife’s family, widows, children and the disabled dependent upon their savings, only to have it squandered by millionaire-crook-bankers masquerading as professional elites. The thievery connected then US Vice-President Dawes with Addison Mizner and George Merrick, developers of Boca Raton and Coral Gables, respectively, but who became bank officers all. They took depositor’s funds for their own personal use and/or investment in speculative real estate and other deals. Had they been honest, the history of Florida would be happier and a more prosperous state today would have resulted. Meanwhile those bankers lived and died rich; depositors lived and died poor. In 1994 Vickers was motivated to write because of the 1980’s Savings and Loan Fiasco. He wrote before the 2008 Wall Street Meltdown, but it is very easy to see the parallels. Some see my writings as demonization of the wealthy out of jealousy. Surely, I wouldn’t mind being wealthier. But as Vickers reminds, history repeats itself. With lessons from the past such as bankers using the deposits of many little people which amounts to lots of money for the bankers paying paltry returns for the use of same while using those depositors money to build their own wealth to astronomical heights. It was all abetted by political patronage so government officials would look away. Worse, the banking laws have not changed. I just summarized Vickers’s book for you. That is why I indict the oil industry wealth of the Koch Brothers who buy elections with propaganda. Vice President Dawes was also in the oil industry. It raises to question the Wall Street bankers and the bankers at TD Bank-excuse me, Toronto Dominion Bank and TD Ameritrade or rather Toronto Dominion Ameritrade for their paltry returns to depositors and excessive fees to common investors like you and me while they finance the oil industry to make even bigger profits such as with the Keystone XL Pipeline. Meanwhile consumers find it hard to get mortgages and small business people to get loans. Meanwhile the average people, the so-called 99 per cent, are left with a polluted earth and no money to seek social and earth justice. Am I jealous and paranoid? Is Professor Raymond Vickers? I highly recommend the reading of his book. Then give me your answer.