this atmosphere, community banks either merged or died. Many died.120 More banks merged between 1980 and 1990 than in any preceding decade in U.S. history. In just ten years, from 1982 to 1992, 1,500 banks failed—three-quarters of all U.S. bank failures since the Great Depression.121 The least able to compete were banks in rural areas or inner-city ghettos.122
