And please don't say something stupid like "This is a good thing, it keeps people honest".
It's not stupid, it's the truth. Yes, irrationality can trigger a stampede, but that will only be a problem for those exchanges that practice fractional reserve banking. Then that is the problem, not the XRP exchange rate, and the offending exchanges will be quickly eliminated, thus solving the problem. I'm not going to hold large sums of money at an exchange, or in the form of IOUs until they have earned my trust, which may take a very long time.
Unless of course the "Good" (non-fractional reserve) gateways had allowed people to redeem IOUs from other gateways before they realized there was run on; in which case their reserves (which includes IOUs from other gateways) are no longer sufficient to cover their own IOUs; despite being 100% funded.
And if you can only redeem your IOUs at the same gateway that you received them...then wtf is the point of Ripple?
And I find it pretty odd that much of your reasoning behind Ripple being a sound/safe system is that "I'm not gonna keep much money in it anyway"...so I guess it is pretty safe then, cause you didn't put much money in to lose...
