Bank profits stayed positive during the Great Depression?

vp3434 posted on Wed, Jun 10 2009 12:01 PM

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This article (www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/3523) says that chargeoff rates during the Great Depression peaked at only 5% and averaged 2 to 3% during the early 1930s.  Thus, bank profits only declined about 40% while overall corporate profits went negative in 1932.  This doesn't make sense to me that banks did better than corporations did overall during the Great Depression when 1/3 of all banks failed.  Can anyone see flaws in the author's analysis?