If clearing failed, the Mercantile Exchange could not open. That would fuel the spreading panic that threatened to engulf America's financial institutions in a cascade of bankruptcies. Melamed knew, that Monday night, just how important it was that clearing be completed. Frantic activity by Melamed and his colleagues throughout the night (including a 3 A.M. call to the home of the president of Morgan Stanley to tell him that his bank owed them $1 billion) achieved the transfer of $2.1 billion, but as morning approached $400 million was still owed to Continental Illinois Bank, which acted as the Merc's agent.

Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, loc. 22