Be afraid, be very afraid

This is the single most frightening passage I've read since Lehman Brothers fell. If it's true, then it sure gives credence to the doomsday prophets.

On C-Span, Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-PA) explained how the Federal Reserve
told members of Congress about an electronic run on the banks "to the tune of
$550 billion dollars" within "an hour or two" last fall. According to Kanjorski,
on September 18, 2008 the Fed tried to "stem the tide" by pumping money into the
financial system but it didn't work and decided instead to announce an immediate
increase in deposit insurance to $250,000 per account to stop the panic.
Said Kanjorski: "If they had not done that, their estimation is that by 2 p.m. that
afternoon, $5.5 trillion would have been drawn out of the money market system of
the U.S., would have collapsed the entire economy of the U.S., and within 24
hours the world economy would have collapsed. It would have been the end of our
economic system and our political system as we know it."