The Federal Reserve, along with the financial community, didn’t see, or failed to act on signs ahead of the current financial crisis, a Fed official said on Thursday.

We must acknowledge that most in the financial community, including those of us at the Federal Reserve, failed to either detect or act upon the tell-tale signs of financial system excess, Fisher told a conference, according to Reuters.

Addressing investors, however, he encouraged them not withdraw from the market.

“It does an economy no good when creditors curl up in a ball and clutch their money,” he said. “You can’t have capitalism without capital.

“Were I you-were I in my old business of being a market operator and investor-I would be licking my chops at the opportunities that always abound in times of adversity, while those who got too big or too dysfunctional lick their wounds, he added in excerpts released by the Dallas Fed.

In the parlance of the trade, there are a lot of dollar bills that can be found in the debris of the current markets that can be picked up for nickels and dimes.

Go out and pick 'em up, he concluded.