The meltdown on Wall Street was real, and posed great risk. If I read correctly, and I multi-sourced this, there was a short period that companies couldn't sell short term paper; in other words companies with big assets couldn't get loans for a day or two that were a fraction of their assets. Since banks never ever have cash reserves close to the total of the M1 deposit (the US requires only 10%), a bank run can be explosively devastating.
But, that's only part of it. European banks have even weaker requirements on deposits http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserve_requirement Leaman Brothers (sp) had a 40x leverage. Deuchbank, I've heard from a good source, is leveraged 60x. If it falls, I think it may be impossible for Germany to bail it out. Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
