“It’s A Wonderful Life” Used for Teaching Students about Banking

FOX’s Ginny Kosola explains how a classic holiday movie is teaching people about banking.

The beloved holiday movie “It’s A Wonderful Life” portrays a classic bank run:

(George Bailey) “You’re thinking of this place all wrong. As if I had the money back in a safe. The money’s not here. Your money’s in Joe’s house, that’s right next to yours. And in the Kennedy house, and Mrs. Macklin’s house, and a hundred others.”

Bernie McSherry is founding Dean of New Jersey City University and former Governor of the New York Stock Exchange:

(McSherry) “You know it’s based on the idea of fractional reserved banking. The idea of fractional reserved banking is that when you take money to the bank, you make a deposit, they keep only a very small percentage of that money actually on hand and they lend the rest out.”

The scene is even used by former FED Chair Ben Bernanke to explain to students what happens in a bank run. McSherry says the generous locals who toss money into a basket at the end of the movie would probably have to deposit that cash.

I’m Ginny Kosola.