Amanda Ripley Author of The Unthinkable

My colleagues at Time, Karen Tumulty and Massimo Calabresi, have written a story that details what officials are afraid will happen without a bailout. Nicely done.

On Sept. 18, Paulson and Bernanke laid out the dark scenario for stunned-silent congressional leaders: a stock-market crash, businesses going under, unemployment soaring, consumers unable to get so much as a car loan, banks failing so fast that they would quickly drain the federal deposit insurance fund--and with it, countless people’s life savings. And unlike the chain reaction that came over the course of weeks and months in 1929, this one would happen in a matter of days, if not faster.

Now why didn’t Paulson and Bernanke explain this directly to the people who are paying for the bail-out in the very beginning? Because they were worried about a self-fulfilling prophecy? They were afraid millions of people would drain their bank accounts before Congress could pass a rescue plan?

As I mention below, this fear of public hysteria is usually more powerful than the hysteria. And it must be weighed against the need to gain the public’s trust--in order to get said bail-out.

Last I checked, there have been no mobs in the street since the Time story came out. I would be curious to see the ATM receipts in the Capitol, however…