This article examines the phenomenon of monetary crises (currently described as “meltdowns of the banking system”) and its corresponding capitalist dynamic as it plays out in the behaviour of banks. A critical comparison is drawn between liberal economist Walter Bagehot’s 1874 monograph on 19th century monetary crises, Lombard Street, and Karl Marx’s contemporaneous analyses of money and credit as found in Section Five of the third volume of Capital. On this basis, parallels to the current crisis are explored.