Dodd: we’re literally maybe days away from a complete meltdown of our financial system

A must read: Congressional Leaders Stunned by Warnings, by David M. Herszenhorn

The article describes the meeting in Nancy Pelosi's office between Congressional leaders and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr.

Excerpts:

As Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut and chairman of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, put it Friday morning on the ABC program “Good Morning America,” the congressional leaders were told “that we’re literally maybe days away from a complete meltdown of our financial system, with all the implications here at home and globally.”
Mr. Schumer added, “History was sort of hanging over it, like this was a moment.”
When Mr. Schumer described the meeting as “somber,” Mr. Dodd cut in. “Somber doesn’t begin to justify the words,” he said. “We have never heard language like this.”

"What you heard last evening,” he added, “is one of those rare moments, certainly rare in my experience here, is Democrats and Republicans deciding we need to work together quickly.”