John At The Center

Banks are different. Their health affects every sector of the economy, and there’s now widespread, if not universal, agreement among economists that a breakdown of financial intermediation–a.k.a. banking–was the main cause of the Great Depression.

http://curiouscapitalist.blogs.time.com/2008/11/24/why-are-we-so-mean-to-the-car-companies-and-nice-to-the-banks/