This chart shows how the total amount of reserves that banks have borrowed from the Fed has varied over the last 23 years. You can see that, prior to this past month, the total rarely strayed far from the zero line, except for a brief spike in 2001 (the week after the 9/11 terrorist attacks).
In the past month borrowed reserves are off the chart - about 10 times the previous record. Private lenders have panicked and refused to lend. The Fed has, to a degree, stepped in to fill the void.
