The taxpayers are bailing out the elite....again.

Kim, Dallas, TX

MR Bernanke & Mr Paulson has asked for a blank check to prop up Freddie & Fannie. They were asked by the smarter ones at the meeting who is going to back this blank check? it finally came out that TAX payers would be left with the debt, to give the Bush administration an escape route.

Daphne Kenward, Cambridge, UK

Its a smart move to tell people they will garantee $100,000. If there is a family of 4 2 children & 2 adults with 25,000 National debt each it amounts to $100,000. So you dont get anything back those who never had anything still owes 25,000 each all 300ML people. The US dollar has lost 95% its value

Daphne Kenward, Cambridge, UK

I watched the Secretary of the FED in a meeting about FREDDIE & FANNIE he bluffed his way out of questions he could not answer. Now they are going away to think if FANNIE & FREDDIE can be saved by a BLUFF, there is no money to secure FANNIE & FREDDIE, and TAX payers money will have to back the debt.

Daphne Kenward, Cambridge, UK

The headline makes it sound like there is a country-wide panic, rather than the concern of a small but visible (and photogenic!) segment of people in a localized area.

Ben Hoff, New Jersey, USA

Americans often hear the Government say it "guarantees" their bank deposits. While such assurances are intended to keep depositors from panicking, the well is not infinitely deep. When the water in the well becomes exhausted, the likely result will be the freezing of deposits. No one knows when.

Ronald, Los Angeles., USA

The United States economy, taken as a whole, is run just like ENRON. It will share the same fate.

Robbie, Rosendale, NY, USA

I can remember back in the roaring 20's the ones who gave us the federal reseve bank. SAying that with the fed bank running the show we would never have another crash! and then we got the depression of the 30's. and then the federal reseve bank took control of the currency of America. WE have replay

Stephen Jones, smallville, USA

I guess there is an idea for a TV reality show. You pay $100,000 to compete, the producers deposit your money in failing banks, and your team's task is to race from bank to bank trying to get it out again.

By the time Russian TV picks up the show it will be ten roubles in a tin can.

jon livesey, Sunnyvale, CA/USA

The "Little Man" hs nothing to fear if he stands on line and acts like a gentleman. Separate accounts of 100,000K or less are insured - so people with much more would be insured if they followed Federal Depository Insurace rules which define "separate". Inciting panic will result in arrest.

Lilly, NYC, USA

All this problem with people taking out money will cause them to fail faster, which most banks need to do. A good friend of mine is a Bank Manager, he told me if banks worked on a 2% loan for cars, a 4% on mortgages and 2% on credit cards, they would still MAKE PLENTY OF MONEY.

Bob, Stratford, USA

Many people feel impowered, they feel great, they think this is the salvation. But this is infact the begining of the end. Politicans dont worry about the future but for the next 10 years.
No one looked into the 20th CENTURY, they did not need to.
But all EMPIRES die because something kills it off

Daphne Kenward, Cambridge, UK

I remember US posts here finding the Qs outside Northern Rock branches amusing and commenting on the TinPot dictatorship nature of such scenes. I don't find Qs outside IndyMac branches remotely funny - and neither will earlier US posters if Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are hastened to an early demise

Jonathan, Farnham, GB

History in the making. The western world is learning most governments are fundamentally incompetent.
For decades, UK, USA govts sat back and watched private and public debt reach bankruptsy levels. Solvency is now decades away. Democracy needs meritocratic govt. Not self seekers.

Leigh Vernier, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

What stupid people. The financial system is imploding under the weight of it's own greed and self indulgence and they are trying get their money out. How can they not believe their own government when it says it will protect them? After all, when did you last hear of your government lying to you?

martyn, calvia, spain

I would say to Bill Peter, right you are. We all know it too. The government has evolved to serve its corporate masters and special interests first, second, and third and anyone who doesn't like it is arrestable or in prison..

Brian Stewart, los angeles, Ca

Panic in America? One branch at one bank where some people stood in line to get their money. By the time the Times reported this, the line had already cleared. Most of the depositors are fully insured. Hence, most customers did not show up in line.

You're headlines are getting as bad as the BBC.

Paul Huntington, Southern California, USA

Totally ridiculous, just people looking for something to do on a hot July day. Interviews with "panicked" people in line at IndyMac, all of whom acknowledge they have far less in the bank than the $100,000 for which their deps are federally insured. People being silly, feeding the news machine.

Jim Houghton, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Government, regulators, bankers - all deep in denial.

The only people who appear to be rational are standing in line...

Michael, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand

As usual, the American authourities protect the interests of the "little man" by threatening to arrest him.

Bill Peter, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia