Panic in Paradise

Panic in Paradise is a comprehensive study of bank loan failures during the Florida land boom of the mid-1920s, during the years preceding the stock market crash of 1929. Florida and Georgia experienced a banking panic in 1926 when, in a ten-day period in July, after uncontrollable depositor runs, 117 banks closed in the two states. Uninsured depositors lost millions, and several suicides followed the financial havoc. This volume makes use of banking records that were legally sealed for almost 70 years and provides a shocking story of professional corruption and conspiracy.

"An extraordinary and unusual book that makes an important contribution to our understanding of banking history and the general economic history oof the 1920s. The banking collapse in the Southeast is virtually unknown, even to specialists in banking and financial history. No one who is interested in the banking history of the United States will want to miss this book." -- Eugene N. White, Rutgers University

"An exhaustively researched pioneering study; brilliant investigative reporting." -- Jack Blicksilver, Georgia State University

Raymond Vickers, whose background includes a law degree, a Ph.D. in history, and four years as assistant comptroller of Florida (which made him Chief of Staff of the Florida Department of Banking and Finance) is uniquely qualified to provide a thorough disclosure of the Florida banking debacle of the 1920s. His long-term research and successful lawsuits designed to force the disclosure of sealed records have brought him to the attention of such major media outlets as the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, in which Vickers said: "I haven't found a single bank failure that didn't involve a conscious conspiracy to defraud."