Sorry, I must continue this off-topic thread. There have been panics throughout history, even when 10:1 was considered highly-leveraged. The Second Bank of the United States, eventually abolished by Jackson, fell victim in the Panic of 1819, with leverage of just 9:1. (See Rothbard's History of Money & Banking in the US)
Your point is well-taken, but given the history of panics under varied reserve requirements, there may be something to the concept that any fractional reserve banking at all is a problem.
Rothbard advocates Free Banking in The Mystery of Banking, a free-market system of banks with no regulation at all. In such a system, fractional reserve lending would actually be allowed, but it would not be legally protected by the state nor guaranteed by it. He predicts that under such a system, banks would tend towards full reserves because of the constant redemption of their notes by competing banks (among other reasons.)
Microsoft was given AAA rating when they announced the issuance of $6 billion in bonds.
From the Economic Times:
23 Sep, 2008 NEW YORK: Software giant Microsoft has been assigned the highest investment grade of 'AAA' by global credit rating agency Standard & Poor's, making it the first American non-financial corporate debt issuer to receive this rating in a decade.
Also from Forbes:
09.22.08 - Moody's Investors Service said it assigned an 'AAA' senior unsecured debt rating to Microsoft Corp. reflecting the company's position as the world's largest software company with a strong and defensible market position throughout its diverse core offerings. The rating outlook is stable.
After Goliath's defeat, giants ceased to command respect. - Freeman Dyson