This is one frightening story. Since it didn’t come to pass there’s no way of knowing exactly how bad it would have been, but I think it’s safe to say even the rosiest scenario would have been bad, bad news for the U.S.
The quote below is from Capital Markets Subcommittee Chair, Rep. Paul Kanjorski of Pennsylvania.
From the link:
Kanjorski: “The Treasury opened its window to help. They pumped a hundred and five billion dollars into the system and quickly realized that they could not stem the tide. We were having an electronic run on the banks. They decided to close the operation, close down the money accounts, and announce a guarantee of $250,000 per account so there wouldn’t be further panic and there. And that’s what actually happened. If they had not done that their estimation was that by two o’clock that afternoon, five-and-a-half trillion dollars would have been drawn out of the money market system of the United States, would have collapsed the entire economy of the United States, and within 24 hours the world economy would have collapsed.”
“It would have been the end of our political system and our economic systems as we know it.”
David Kirkpatrick 