Last summer, some of America’s largest banks secretly stocked their cash machines with the maximum possible supply of notes. The reason? In July 2011, the bankers feared that the US might be about to suffer a technical default, because Congress could not agree on measures to raise the debt ceiling.
So, they decided – after collective discussions – to keep those ATMs stuffed with greenbacks to ensure that consumers would never panic about running out of cash if that “worst-case” default scenario transpired. It is a sobering – and illuminating – point to ponder, amid the tortuous dramas now surrounding the future of the eurozone.
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