Hordes of small and mid-size banks are now in trouble, and that is really bad news because those institutions issue most of the mortgages, auto loans and credit cards that our economy runs on.  The other day, I asked my viewers to “imagine what our country will look like if the banking system implodes and the economy plunges into a depression”, because if our banks continue to collapse that is precisely where we are headed. JPMorgan Chase & Co analysts estimate that the “most vulnerable” U.S. banks are likely to have lost a total of about $1 trillion in deposits since last year, with half of the outflows occurring in March following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. There are more than 4,000 banks in the United States right now, and the vast majority of them are rapidly losing deposits. As a result, U.S. banks are being forced to turn to the Fed for help at a very frightening rate… Banks have been flocking to emergency lending facilities set up after the failures of SVB and Signature. Data released Thursday showed that institutions took a daily average of $116.1 billion of loans from the central bank’s discount window, the highest since the financial crisis, and have taken out $53.7 billion from the Bank Term Funding Program. Meanwhile, the banking crisis in Europe has taken another very alarming turn. Deutsche Bank shares fell on Friday following a spike in credit default swaps Thursday night, as concerns about the stability of European banks persisted. The Frankfurt-listed stock was down 14% at one point during the session but trimmed losses to close 8.6% lower on Friday afternoon. The German lender’s Frankfurt-listed shares retreated for a third consecutive day and have now lost more than a fifth of their value so far this month. The emergency rescue of Credit Suisse by UBS , in the wake of the collapse of U.S.-based Silicon Valley Bank, has triggered contagion concern among investors, which was deepened by further monetary policy tightening from the U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday. But what is going to happen to our economy when the flow of mortgages, auto loans and credit cards is greatly restricted? Our country is already being torn to shreds like a 20 dollar suit, and economic conditions are still relatively stable. So what is going to happen when we do fall into a very deep economic depression? These are such perilous times, and they are only going to get more difficult in the months ahead.