From: Brent Allsop (allsop@swttools.fc.hp.com)
Date: Fri Feb 12 1999 - 12:38:31 MST
Mark <mark@unicorn.com> commented:
> Getting back to what I was saying about bank runs, I was amused to
> read another 'Y2K is no big deal' article today. After telling
> people that the biggest problem was panic, they then went on to say
> that everyone should take out two weeks' pay before Christmas just
> in case... a recommendation which would by itself cause the collapse
> or near-collapse of the banking system if everyone followed
> it. Idiots.
Could this really cause such a collapse? As I indicated
before many of my more fundamentalistic family and friends are getting
more cache than this in their house right now. Isn't this a big
reason the Fed came up with the new currency to handle all this extra
demand? There was a huge drain of cache during the stock market fall
back in 87, something that would have surely caused major problems 100
years ago. But the Fed was ready and flooded the system with whatever
it needed. Some banks had to pay high interest to get access to it
for the short time required but what was required was made available
and they didn't have to pay interest on all the money people had
withdrawn from their accounts. With the power the fed has today to
print money, monitor supplies, and respond rapidly, I think there is
much more flexibility in the system today than people think.
If you you want to take extra cache out go ahead and do it.
It'll simply cost you some lost interest, but that's about it as far
as I can see.
Brent Allsop
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