On panicking

My bank was closed this weekend.

This past week, my boss and i drove many miles to the picnic area from the office and back. I drove once, because he needed to eat breakfast. Then he drove back, and he's driven ever since. I think it alarmed him that i swerved for animals, dead or alive.

Nah, i know it alarmed him, because he mentioned it Friday. "Y'know how you swerve for animals in the road?" he said. "And panic? What if there was oncoming traffic?"

There wasn't, i replied. In split seconds i notice there's no oncoming traffic and there's a dead squished thing that i don't want splattered on the car or thunking under me, and i swerve. I've never hit anyone in street traffic and i avoid running over things then too.

He thinks--and rightly--that i should train myself to swerve to the shoulder or at least get the creature under the undercarriage of the vehicle, not avoid it altogether. I need to work on my panic reflexes.

AND SO DOES THE REST OF THE COUNTRY. Yeesh, people, have you never read the fine print of the FDIC? Have you not studied the Great Depression and learned about the safety nets installed so that people losing their life savings in banks doesn't happen again? Do you know that banks closing and stock prices crashing are self-fulfilling prophecies and YOUR panic is part of what sets them off and makes them come true? I understand there were some less than wise decisions made by the bank, and that its share prices fell. They had a plan to maintain liquidity, though, and that was ruined by people panicking and withdrawing funds: funds that were insured. They couldn't have been lost. And now the entire thing is dead.

Arg.

EDIT: Today, the idiocy continues. I agree there was probably greed involved in the bank's collapse, but that is no excuse for idiocy (or for signing something to get a house. What about personal integrity?) Where are the brains of people who waited in line today, saying "I'm going to take my money out, if it's still there." OF COURSE it's still there! That's what the FDIC has been saying in print, on the phone, and online all weekend! Arg.