I was talking about the "discount window", and the bank run in LA and the possibility that for the first time in 70+ years Americans could see a real bank collapse where people see their money got puff.  Now I undertand that the FDIC insures up to $100,000, but after that you're on your own.  

My friend is from Mexico, and he was telling me about the peso crisis in 1994.  He lost everything.  As much as we like to think that we are immune to this in the developed world, we aren't. The political impact of hundreds of thousands forced from their homes, others who've lost the money they've put in the bank. We aren't prepared for that.

Now the government can step in to provide order, but after what happened with Katrina, I'm not holding my breath.

And when you subject a nation to that sort of economic hardship you intitate Polanyi's double movement.  Society acts to protect itself, and that can come in social democratic form, or that can result in appeals to God and country.

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg