keith,

Thank you.

Also, if the going gets tough the corporates will side-step the banks. The Banks, in GD, when under pressure maintain profitability; well, they increased the margin-gap between currency selling buying and selling rates. The corporates traded in gold avoiding the Banks. (I think after 1944, up until fairly recent times trading in gold by was stopped?)

As interest rates fall, it must be remembered the Banks have billions in liabilities at old rates.

How would a Government guarantee a few trillion dollars of deposits, a degree of magnitude in excess of the annual budget.