samhain,
I hate to disagree with you especially since I have been away for long but, The FDIC idea won't really hold water. FDIC has a few billion dollars in it's coffers and there are several trillion dollars in accounts in this country. There is even more now that they have increased the amount they cover.
No problem with disagreement ray. That's how we learn. I don't think that the FDIC by itself is the safety net that is going to solve the problem.
However, it is
one of the mechanisms that we've put in place based on lessons learned from the past.
It is serving a valuable purpose by existing in that it provides some level of reassurance to the public to avoid runs on banks which just aggravates problems.
Consumer confidence goes a long way in a crisis like this. People acting out of fear will turn any crisis into a full blown disaster. Anything that calms fears with some
realistic actions, is what will turn this around.
History has taught us that times like this are time-limited and things do turn around, and they will occur again in the future.