Yes. I am sure. I have far, far, far less than 0.000001% of the total money in the bank. If they could not produce this much money when I wanted it, there would be other serious problems.
> Or if you want a more practical example, keep watching Greece
If I was in Greece, I would not have my money in one of their banks.
Last year, a branch office of a large bank in Finland was barely able to produce 10 000 euros in cash when I wanted to withdraw it.
The clerk just didn't realize he shouldn't mention it.
Don't be so sure.
But I'd sure expect more than 10k euro.
Furthermore, acting as a "proper bank" means they do a lot more than just acting as your personal piggy-bank/mattress. If they have all their money tied up in cash, it means they can't actually be preforming real bank activities (investment).
I just chimed in with my anecdote.
You think this is enough nitpicking, or do you want to go on?
There's a reason banks have a legal right to refuse a withdrawal, specifically because they may not have enough funds. That reason is: because it has and will happen.
What happened with Washington Mutual is not what's going to happen if there's a run on Mt Gox.
I admit I got a little off track though. My parent specifically stated withdraw money when he wants. There's plenty of evidence that at the peak of the crisis, some people had problems. But I agree, it seemed to have been few, and in the context of Mt Gox, it isn't really relevant.