Can You Draw Money Out of Your Bank Right Now?

People across the country are reporting problems drawing money out from their banks as fears abound on main street that consumer banks are going to be the next wave of casualties in the Wall Street meltdown. The website dailypaul.com, run by Ron PaulRon Paul supporter Michael Nystrom, reports that Bank of America is set to pull down its shutters for a week. The site reports that signs announcing: "We're sorry, but due to circumstances beyond our control, we cannot be open at this time" have been shipped to branches all over the country.

US Bank customers reported that they could not draw out money. Some people who are able to draw cash out are undertaking a run of a different kind -- on the local Costco or Walmart to stock up on food items.

There is a precedence to banks being temporarily shut down to prevent runs. President Roosevelt shut down all banks in the country for a short time after his inauguration. The current financial crisis is the most serious since the Great Depression. In the first four years of the Great Depression, 1929-1933, some nine thousand banks shut down.

Two days ago, on 1 October, Washington Mutual, the largest US Savings and Loan, was shut down by the US Government and its assets sold to J.P. Morgan Chase and Co. for 1.9 billion dollars.

Critics of the Federal Reserve and banking system are having a field day digging up quotes by past US Presidents and other luminaries about the dangers of the modern banking system:

Thomas JeffersonThomas Jefferson: "If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

Abraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln:

”The government should create, issue and circulate all currency and credit needed to satisfy the spending power of Government and the buying power of consumers. The privilege of creating and issuing money is the supreme prerogative of Government….The privilege of creating and issuing money is... The supreme prerogative of Government…..”

Henry FordHenry Ford: “It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”

Ron Paul and Ralph NaderRalph Nader agree.