A link to the USA TODAY POLL is at the bottom of this article-
A recent USA Today poll revealed that 16% of people plan to withdraw ALL their money from the bank. 31% plan to withdraw and set aside a "large amount" of cash. While previous polls have revealed similar plans from people in the information technology industry, this poll shows that not only is the general public planning on withdrawing their cash from the banks, it provides numbers that, if followed, would without question deplete the entire banking system of its cash. Bank runs and bank holidays would likely follow.
Here's how the numbers work out: the banks currently hold approximately $44 billion in cash reserves. This is reportedly going to be shored up by the Federal Reserve at some point in 1999 with up to $200 billion in cash reserves that they claim to have set aside.
Banks currently owe depositors approximately $3.7 trillion. That's money the banking customers have deposited with the banks. The USA Today poll reveals that 16% of the customers plan to withdraw ALL their cash. 16% of 3.7 trillion is $592 billion.
In cash.
Look at the numbers again: the banks have $44 billion. The Fed has an extra $200 billion. The people want $592 billion. But the banks don't have it.
THAT'S NOT THE END OF IT, THOUGH This is only considering the 16% who said they would take out everything. What about the 31% who said that would withdraw and set aside a large amount of cash? What impact might this have?
While it's difficult to put a number on such vague statements, we'll suppose that $2000 is a "large amount of cash" for the average American household. You can run the same calculations with $1000 if you wish: the results still lead to massive bank failures.
If 31% of the 100 million households each withdraw $2000, you'll need another $200 billion in cash. While there's some overlap here with those in the 16%, we're still talking about hundreds of billions more in U.S. currency than exists on the entire planet. (Less than $400 billion in U.S. currency is currently in circulation around the entire world according to Federal Reserve estimates, and only about 1/3 of that is in the United States.
Link to article: http://www.usatoday.com/news/ndswed10.htm
----- tully