HOW BANKS PREPARED FOR A U.S. DEFAULT.
HOW BANKS PREPARED FOR A U.S. DEFAULT. Gillian Tett describes how large banks in the United States made preparations in 2001 for a possible United States technical default which might have resulted from the Congressional impasse over whether to raise the debt ceiling. Banks stocked their cash machines with as much currency as they could. The largest banks were supposed to have spent about $50 million rewriting contracts to take account of a possible default. There were detailed discussions at senior levels about the problems both with other banks and with federal regulators.
I just had a lecture today about EuroBonds, and the guest lecturer mentioned that nobody in Europe is preparing for the Euro currency dissolving. Even if a country would like to, apparently there is immense political pressure not to be caught preparing for it because it could trigger negative events.