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The Panic of 1907 began when the largest trust (an institution that accepts deposits of wealthy people and offers high returns) of the United States, Knickerbocker Trust, failed due to massive loss on stock market speculation. This shook the people’s belief in such trusts, and they began to start withdrawing their money which brought recession to the US economy.

During the S&L crisis, people speculated about the inflation rate, which made them withdraw their money from low interest-paying accounts to high interest-paying accounts; this led to a fall in the value of thrifts' assets S&L.

Due to the low assets and increasing liabilities, the savings and loans institution, otherwise known as thrifts, collapsed, leading to a recession in the early 1990s.

In 2008, following the increase in the real estate prices, the banks started lending money to subprime lenders(the ones who did not meet the eligibility criteria to borrow funds). Banks made such lending based on speculation that the real estate prices would increase, and eventually, these lenders would pay the loan back.

However, the housing bubble burst and the real estate prices fell drastically. Most of the borrowers were not able to pay the loans back, which led failure of the banking system resulting in the most severe recession in the United States.

Therefore, it was speculations that led to the failure of the banking system in all three crises.