If I were a CEO, any CEO, I would have a statement on the front page of my website. It would honestly address this situation. Here is just a brief proposal for a "good" community bank and a food company:

Bank:
I know many of you are worried about this crisis. I certainly am. We at CommunityBank learned some hard lessons from the last S&L and real estate crisis, and are grateful our leadership steered us successfully out. As a result, we have continued lending policies intended to keep us in business for centuries, not just through the next quarter or deal. We missed out on some profits, and turned down many loans.

Now for the data. First, your deposits here are insured up to $250,000. They are safe. Second, of the assets we have, 50% are loans, 40% are invested in bonds, and 5% are invested in our physical locations, and 5% is actual cash. Of the 50% loans, less than 1% are less than 90 days past due. Our borrowers are doing OK. Third, to our shareholders. We will no doubt make less money this year. But things will improve, as they always do. FInally, to our employees. Come to work, and do your job well. We will not lay off employees this year or next year. Our executives have committed to cutting their pay by 20% so we can do so. That is the best we can do.

So thank you for your continued business, thank you for investing in us for the long term, and thank you for your hard work. Take a breath. We will get through this.

Food company:
People will be relying on us more than ever before, and we have a solemn duty to this region to do our jobs better than before. We do not need to use commercial paper, and we are not shut out of the credit markets. We pay our suppliers and workers within 30 days, and our customers pay us within 45 days. That leaves us 15 days we need to cover; we have $xx,xxx,xxx in our bank account right now and a line of credit for $xx,xxx,xxx. This is enough to cover 60 days. The line of credit costs more than we would like. Shareholders, we will not make as much this year...

You get the idea.

Now companies that are not in good shape are going to need to be equally honest, and their CEOs are going to need to propose realistic solutions.

People have a right to know, especially now.

WRoss - take a look at history. Americans bought War bonds, and that took both confidence and leadership from FDR. We've done it before, even if the world can't or won't help.

The Dow and other indexes are dropping because there are more sellers than buyers. But make no mistake, the sellers get cash from their trades. And this cash can be used to buy bonds.

But I agree, we the people must pay this back, with interest. But I'd much rather have that than the alternative!