The U.S. banking holiday of March 1933 was a pivotal event in twentieth-century political and economic history. After closing the nation's banks for nine days, the administration of newly inaugurated president Franklin D. Roosevelt restarted the banking system as the first step toward national recovery from the global Great Depression. In the conventional narrative, the holiday succeeded because Roosevelt used his political talents to restore public confidence in the nation's banks. However, such accounts say virtually nothing about what happened during the holiday itself. We reinterpret the banking crises of the 1930s and the 1933 holiday through the lens of bank supervision, the continuous oversight of commercial banks by government officials. Through the 1930s banking crises, federal supervisors identified troubled banks but could not act to close them. Roosevelt empowered supervisors to act decisively during the holiday. By closing some banks, supervisors made credible Roosevelt's claims that banks that reopened were sound. Thus, the union of FDR's political skills with the technical judgment of bank supervisors was the key to solving the banking crisis. Neither could stand alone, and both together were the vital precondition for further economic reforms—including devaluing the dollar—and, with them, Roosevelt's New Deal.

1933年3月的美国银行假期是20世纪政治和经济历史上的关键事件。在关闭国家银行9天后，新任总统富兰克林·罗斯福（Franklin D. Roosevelt）的政府重新启动了银行体系，这是迈向从全球大萧条中复苏的第一步。在传统的叙述中，假期成功了，因为罗斯福利用他的政治才能恢复了公众对国家银行的信心。但是，这样的说法几乎没有说明假期本身发生了什么。我们通过银行监管的视角重新诠释了1930年代和1933年假日的银行危机，即政府官员对商业银行的持续监管。在1930年代的银行危机中，联邦监管人员确定了陷入困境的银行，但无法采取行动将其关闭。罗斯福授权主管在假日期间采取果断行动。通过关闭一些银行，监管人员提出了可信的罗斯福的说法，即重新开业的银行是健全的。因此，FDR的政治技能与银行监管者的技术判断相结合是解决银行危机的关键。两者都不可以孤立，而且两者都是进行进一步经济改革（包括使美元贬值）以及罗斯福新政的重要先决条件。具有银行监管人员的技术判断能力的政治技巧是解决银行业危机的关键。两者都不可以孤立，而且两者都是进行进一步经济改革（包括使美元贬值）以及罗斯福新政的重要先决条件。具有银行监管人员的技术判断能力的政治技巧是解决银行业危机的关键。两者都不可以孤立，而且两者都是进行进一步经济改革（包括使美元贬值）以及罗斯福新政的重要先决条件。