There has been much debate recently about whether bankers deserved their huge bonus pay-outs this year or indeed the high salaries given to them in general after their starring role the current international recession. Now I think the answer is pretty self evident and that’s not what I’m hear to discuss at this point. If you want to vent your frustrations at that then here’s a petition where you can be pro-active in doing that.

No, what needs to be pointed out above all during these endless talks of interest rates, job cuts and businesses going into administration is just how close the planet was from complete economic and political collapse: 3 hours in the US, 24 hours globally. This may sound melodramatic but it’s not, it’s a spine chilling fact according to previously undisclosed insight from elected Democratic politician Paul E. Kanjorski.

Paul E Kanjorski

The full video is below, but here’s the shocking core of it – which kicks off 2 minutes 21 seconds in:

“On Thursday [18 September], at 11am the Federal Reserve noticed a tremendous draw-down of money market accounts in the United States, to the tune of $550 billion was being drawn out in the matter of an hour or two. The Treasury opened up its window to help and pumped a $105 billion in 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 out there…

If they had not done that, their estimation is that by 2pm that afternoon, $5.5 trillion 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 economic system and our political system as we know it.”

Now knowledge of this doesn’t solve anything. It doesn’t make the banks any less culpable or the political leaders who ignored their negligent high risk practices any less responsible. If anything it makes it worse. It does do one thing however and that’s the next time you’re feeling down about the latest national or international turmoil just remember: it could’ve been one heck of a lot worse…

Great kudos to Zero Hedge for this brilliant – and important – spot.