There is no alternative? The financial crisis and the problem of bail-outs (journal article)
by Tony Aspromourgos
from AQ, January-February 2009, pp. 4-9
"The great vulnerability of traditional banking as a form of financial intermediation is that if, perchance, an unusually large number of depositirs of a bank all turned up on the same day seeking to 'go liquid' and convert their deposits into cash, the bank might well lack the liquid reserves to meet its obligations to depositors ... one does not need an economics degree to know that banks are not holding sufficient assets in cash to match their deposit liabilities."