October 31, 2025
Cows, cash, and comment chaos
The 1924 New Mexico regional banking panic
From cattle boom to cash bust — and the comment wars over déjà vu
TLDR: A Fed research paper shows New Mexico’s 1924 bank panic echoed modern failures: boom, bust, and rumor-driven runs. Comments split between “history repeats” and “different triggers, same stampede,” with deposit insurance, social media panic, and crypto fixes sparking jokes and fights—relevant because panics love concentration and fast rumors.
The Fed just dropped a wild history lesson, and the comments are treating 1924 like it’s 2023 with cowboy hats. A new FEDS paper (that’s the Fed’s Finance and Economics Discussion Series) revisits New Mexico’s bank panic: wartime cattle boom, loans flying out the door, then prices crash and banks face a stampede of withdrawals. The community? Absolute fireworks.
Strongest opinion: this is a concentration-risk rerun. One camp says SVB’s tech depositors and 1924’s ranchers were the same vibe—too many eggs in one basket, then rumor-fueled chaos. Others clap back: interest rates sank SVB, commodity prices wrecked New Mexico, different causes, same panic. The bailout debate roars too—some argue deposit insurance (the government safety net that protects savings) is essential plot armor, while skeptics shout “moral hazard!”
Humor is flowing like cattle through a chute. Memes about “beef-backed bonds,” “wagyucoin,” and “stampede finance” are everywhere. History nerds flex with newspaper clippings, while crypto diehards claim “decentralize the cattle” and VCs get roasted as “modern cattle barons.” One commenter nails the mood: “Nothing new under the sun—just faster rumors now.” And yes, someone counted how many times “panic” appears in the paper and made a drinking game. Yeehaw, finance!
Key Points
- •SVB grew rapidly during 2020–2022, took on interest rate risk with long-dated bonds, and faced liquidity pressure when rates rose from 0.25% to 4.75%.
- •SVB had many uninsured, concentrated deposits; rumors triggered over $40 billion in rapid withdrawals, creating contagion fears.
- •The Federal Reserve, U.S. Treasury, and FDIC guaranteed all SVB deposits, stabilizing conditions; SVB was acquired by First Citizens.
- •The article references a Federal Reserve study on the 1924 New Mexico banking panic to explore historical parallels.
- •WWI caused major European agricultural declines, spurring U.S. expansion; New Mexico farmers borrowed amid high prices, and later price collapses hurt leveraged producers and local banks.