Richard Burr Encouraged Wife To Perform Single-Family Bank Run
North Carolinians, did you know your only national senator besides godless Kay Hagan is some guy who wanted his wife to withdraw his family's entire savings from his local bank one ATM transaction at a time? If everyone had done this back in September, maybe we reallycouldhave had a good old-fashioned Depressiony bank run like in olden times.
Here is a little secret: Banks do not keep all of their deposits on hand, in cash, all the time. So if everybody collects their deposits on the same day, the banks will quickly run out of cash and then there is a BIG OL FREAKOUT. This is called a "bank run," and it is not usually encouraged by people like senators from states that are home to major banking institutions.
Also, true fact: Most ATMs only allow you to withdraw $300 or so a day, in cash, although maybe if you have a fancy account they'll let you take like a grand? (Ha ha, guess who does not have a fancy account for reference purposes!)
During a speech on the economy last night, Burr related his immediate reaction the week the crisis began. After hearing Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson relay a story about a major company having trouble transferring money between banks, Burr became worried about the solvency of his own bank.
“On Friday night, I called my wife and I said, ‘Brooke, I am not coming home this weekend. I will call you on Monday. Tonight, I want you to go to the ATM machine, and I want you to draw out everything it will let you take," Burr said, according to the Hendersonville Times-News. "And I want you to tomorrow, and I want you to go Sunday.’ I was convinced on Friday night that if you put a plastic card in an ATM machine the last thing you were going to get was cash.”
...So maybe this fancy senator only has as much in his account as your average plumber on payday. Who knows!
Other quibbles: It is not "ATM machine," it is just "ATM," unless you are truly referring to the increasingly rare "automatic teller machine machine."
The point is, Senator Richard Burr, man, what a dingus. Should have just sent his wife in to talk to a teller.
Burr told family to withdraw everything from bank [The Hill]