"Falling property prices caused defaults and a liquidity crisis in the banking system so severe that the authorities feared the cash machines would stop working

"Falling property prices caused defaults and a liquidity crisis in the banking system so severe that the authorities feared the cash machines would stop working." Wow, that can happen? Wouldn't that mean that no one would have any money but the people who have kept cash and rather than a 1930s style depression, more of outright anarchy!