When your MBS or junk bonds are no longer accepted as collateral you have to dig deep into the vault and come up with something that is accepted, like gold or silver.
The logic of bank proxy investing goes something like this: Banks have broad and deep tentacles into a national or regional economy through their loans to companies and individuals.
"To have something happen that never before in our history have we ever borne witness to or imagined, that hits very deep in the entrails of this country, " Valenti says.
Certainly not as steep or as deep as some of the declines we've had there but, you know, you look at something like the Case-Shiller Index, for example.