Here is a verbatim transcript of Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-PA), Capital Markets Subcommittee Chairman, speaking on C-SPAN, February 6, 2009.
On Thursday [9/11/08*], at about 11:00 o'clock in the morning, the Federal Reserve noticed a tremendous drawdown of money market accounts in the United States, to the tune of $550 billion...was being drawn out in a matter of an hour or two.The Treasury opened up its window to help. They pumped $105 billion into 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. And that's what actually happened. If they had not done that their estimation was that by two o'clock that afternoon, five-and-a-half trillion dollars 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.
Now we talked at that time about what would happen if that happened. It would have been the end of our economic system and our political system as we know it, and that's why, when they made the point we've got to act and do things quickly, we did.
You know, we're not any geniuses in economics or finances on the Hill, we're representatives of the people. We ought to take our time, but let the people know this is a very difficult struggle. Somebody threw us into the middle of the Atlantic ocean without a life raft, and we're trying to determine what's the closest shore, and whether there's any chance in the world to swim that far. We don't know.
*NOTE: In the video, Kanjorski says this occurred "about September 15th," and then says that the beginning of the problem occurred on "Thursday." The 15th was a Monday, but the previous Thursday was September 11, 2008.
Moved it to Frontpage - that seems a good fit.