[SILENTTODD]

If you live in America on 9/26, might be a good idea to withdraw a weeks worth of expense money in cash from your checking account in the morning as soon as you read this. A friend called me tonight to tell me the Bloomberg channel was saying all credit accounts might be frozen by tomorrow night if no resolution was worked out to the Banking Crisis.

Reading the New York Times web site tonight it does not appear to be in the works. I will be traveling to the Mojave desert tomorrow morning. I have 3 months worth of food in my apartment, but tomorrow morning I will stop at my credit union and withdraw $1000 from my savings account before I go.

The last time we had a bank holiday (the same thing as this) it was 1933. Wish I had paid more attention to Roccman. I use to think he was nuts, now have come to think of him as more of a prophet.

[ReverseEngineer]

If you live in America on 9/26, might be a good idea to withdraw a weeks worth of expense money in cash from your checking account in the morning as soon as you read this. A friend called me tonight to tell me the Bloomberg channel was saying all credit accounts might be frozen by tomorrow night if no resolution was worked out to the Banking Crisis.
Reading the New York Times web site tonight it does not appear to be in the works. I will be traveling to the Mojave desert tomorrow morning. I have 3 months worth of food in my apartment, but tomorrow morning I will stop at my credit union and withdraw $1000 from my savings account before I go.
The last time we had a bank holiday (the same thing as this) it was 1933. Wish I had paid more attention to Roccman. I use to think he was nuts, now have come to think of him as more of a prophet.

Any bets on when the ATMs shut down and stop dispensing Cash? Will it be tomorrow or will it take until next week?

The closing of the Port of Long Beach is a sure sign Martial Law is imminent. Nothing is going in or out of the country. Checkpoints will be established by Police Depts along major highways, at least as long as THEY have Gas and Food. Commercial Airports will be shut down shortly as well. Wherever you are is where you ARE now, regardless of whether you have gas in your tank and a Bug Out Machine. Well maybe you can still get out if you take off RIGHT NOW.

TSHTF now boys and girls, FOR REAL.
Reverse Engineer

[Cashmere]

No need to panic yet folks.

With regard to money, if you've got any money is savings accounts and you haven't pulled out 6 months worth of cash - bad move.

Remedy that today, AM.

Don't get only large bills - get 20s and 10s.

If you have money making 1-2% in a savings account/checking account, I'd say pull it all but a few bucks to keep the account open, until you can see 6 months worth of expenses.

As for "credit accounts" being frozen, let's not confuse credit lines and such with bank accounts.

Remain calm in the fog of panic.

1st - get cash.

2nd - get food. If you can't see 6 months worth of calories on your cupboard shelf, go to Sam's or Costco today and remedy it. Take the day off from work. Use a credit card, if need be. Get pasta and rice. It's cheap insurance people. (do not store in basement space).

3rd - stay on your toes and don't panic - panic is inefficient.

[MrBean]

Hitchhikers to the Galaxy, grab you towels!

...and... DON'T PANIC!

[hironegro]

You guys can't be serious!?

[MrBean]

You guys can't be serious!?

A tyrant of Syracuse used to tax and rob the citizens on constant basis, and the citizens were seriously frightened, gloomy and weepy after each robbing. But finally after another robbery by the palace guards, the guards told the tyrant that now the citizens were cheerfull and hilarious and making indicent jokes about the tyrant. Tyrant asked why they behaved so strangely. "They have nothing more to take", was the answer.

[hironegro]

You guys can't be serious!?

A tyrant of Syracuse used to tax and rob the citizens on constant basis, and the citizens were seriously frightened, gloomy and weepy after each robbing. But finally after another robbery by the palace guards, the guards told the tyrant that now the citizens were cheerfull and hilarious and making indicent jokes about the tyrant. Tyrant asked why they behaved so strangely. "They have nothing more to take", was the answer.

I hate sound like one of the trolls on this message board, but what evidence is that the credit market will stop functioning?

[MrBean]

You guys can't be serious!?

A tyrant of Syracuse used to tax and rob the citizens on constant basis, and the citizens were seriously frightened, gloomy and weepy after each robbing. But finally after another robbery by the palace guards, the guards told the tyrant that now the citizens were cheerfull and hilarious and making indicent jokes about the tyrant. Tyrant asked why they behaved so strangely. "They have nothing more to take", was the answer.

I hate sound like one of the trolls on this message board, but what evidence is that the credit market will stop functioning?

What is a credit market, most simply? It's population (e.g. human tribe) eating more than nature provides sustainably, and then the payback time to Mother Nature is a die-off.
With this background understood, perhpaps you meant to ask how long can the payback time be postponed for the heavily debted overeating population?

EditPS: as for the intrabank credit market, AFAIK it has stopped functioning long time ago.

[TheDude]

Why keep your money in a bank?

Following a recent radio interview I was involved with, and a discussion with a friend today, I want to propose something that may seem to incite panic, be morally dubious and possibly even dumb to some people. But we’ve all be told throughout our lives to keep money in the bank, since it has a safe in the middle, and it’s the best place to keep your money. Of course, nobody told us they’d be loaning it out to people who couldn’t afford to pay it back, and it would be leveraged 10-1 and resold by investment banks as AAA, to the point where the whole country could collapse.

So my proposition, purely for the sake of discussion is this:
Take all your money out of the bank.

[ReverseEngineer]

Why keep your money in a bank?

Following a recent radio interview I was involved with, and a discussion with a friend today, I want to propose something that may seem to incite panic, be morally dubious and possibly even dumb to some people. But we’ve all be told throughout our lives to keep money in the bank, since it has a safe in the middle, and it’s the best place to keep your money. Of course, nobody told us they’d be loaning it out to people who couldn’t afford to pay it back, and it would be leveraged 10-1 and resold by investment banks as AAA, to the point where the whole country could collapse. o my proposition, purely for the sake of discussion is this:
Take all your money out of the bank.

See chart TheDude's post
See box TheDude's post

Well, I worked my way down this flowchart a while back, I guess its about at least a month since I pulled the last of my money out of the bank and started converting what I have to real assests. Not nearly as much as some people have here in paper wealth, but good grief how on EARTH could you take $500M in Paper Wealth and convert it to real assets in the course of a month anyhow, even IF you believed me to begin with? LOL. I'm trying to figure out tonight how I will go to the local Walmart and buy six shopping carts full of MORE food and not look at least a little suspicious. LOL. This up here on the Last great Frontier where NOBODY understands or thinks there is any problem at all really.

The problem for someone who might have say $100K of FDIC insured deposit in a Checking Account is this:

First off, if you walk into the bank and ask them to give you $100K in small bills, do they really have that on hand?

Second, for just how long REALLY will anyone take this load of paper and give you BACK some food off the shelves of Walmart? How LONG will the belief system hold up that the piece of paper with George Washington printed on special paper is WORTH a bag of rice?

My guess would be after the ATM system goes down, it takes no more than 2-3 days before people get the PICTURE that "cash" is not any good for trade anymore.

The Walmarts go into Lock Down mode very quickly here also. You just will not be able to get inside the store to buy anything. Your local police will surround the store.

Hope you are friends with your local police force, not to mention the local army bases in your area. I have the good fortune of being in that position, I teach their children. Friendship and Community is REAL wealth my friends. Together we survive, together we die, either way I am OK with that. I prefer to die together with my friends and the children I have served.

I hope we can survive. For right now, the Caribou seem to be doing OK. The Yukon Territory is vast, and I think that ecosystem can survive another year at least. The Salmon were still running this year on the Copper River, we took many of them my friends and I.

Long term I do not know, and there will be much hardship for us. However, the people up here are hardy, had to be to live up here in the North Country before it got so warm the Knik Glacier began to cave. The Matanuska Valley will flood once the Greenland Ice Sheet caves completely, but there are other valleys inland where we can migrate to. Valley protected from the ocean by Mountains. Really Big Mountains. The Great Wall that God Built.

Reverse Engineer

[Cloud9]

For some reason, the hair is not raising on the back of my neck. I think I will hide and watch. Walking around with 50 K in your pocket invites disaster.

[ReverseEngineer]

For some reason, the hair is not raising on the back of my neck. I think I will hide and watch. Walking around with 50 K in your pocket invites disaster.

If you advertized at any point in your life or right now that you are "rich", you are a target. I do NOT advertize I am "rich" and I am not, at least by the old standard of digital wealth. I own little. The car I drive is a rusted 1985 Toyota pcikup that stil gets better gas mileage than modern compact cars. Its totally inconspicuous. I leave it unlocked all the time, nobody has the LEAST interest i stealing it. I am just an average man in the society, I don't own the cabin I live in, I could vacate it tomorrow and be none the worse off. I am beholden to noone, I am neither a borrower or a lender. I own what I need to live, that is all. I saved some, but not so much that it would make others jealous of my wealth. I will share what I have to help my comunity, to the point it jeopardizes my own well being, but even then I would sacrifice myself for the children I serve. They are the next generation of my species. I must protect them, at the cost of my own life if necessary.

I have supplies of food, but what have in greatest supply is not something anyone can take away from me and what THEY need to help THEM survive. I have what I hold in my head. My memory is astounding, and so is my ability to calculate. Its what brought me to Stuyvesant and then into the Ivy League schools. I use it not to TAKE from people, but to give back to them as much as I can. It saddens me that others with this gift used it to hurt people. They in fact populate this board in some numbers also, and it hasn't been easy for me to argue on the board here without it bothering some. So be it. I argue the Truth as I see it, that is all.
Reverse Engineer

[steam_cannon]

The last time we had a bank holiday (the same thing as this) it was 1933. Wish I had paid more attention to Roccman. I use to think he was nuts, now have come to think of him as more of a prophet.

He's a pretty sharp guy, the timing of things is a little hard to predict but the problems are in view and he's got a very good eye for spotting them...
I'm cracking open my supply of doomer popcorn and enjoying the show.

[davep]

For some reason, the hair is not raising on the back of my neck. I think I will hide and watch. Walking around with 50 K in your pocket invites disaster.

If you advertized at any point in your life or right now that you are "rich", you are a target. I do NOT advertize I am "rich" and I am not, at least by the old standard of digital wealth. I own little. The car I drive is a rusted 1985 Toyota pcikup that stil gets better gas mileage than modern compact cars. Its totally inconspicuous. I leave it unlocked all the time, nobody has the LEAST interest i stealing it. I am just an average man in the society, I don't own the cabin I live in, I could vacate it tomorrow and be none the worse off. I am beholden to noone, I am neither a borrower or a lender. I own what I need to live, that is all. I saved some, but not so much that it would make others jealous of my wealth. I will share what I have to help my comunity, to the point it jeopardizes my own well being, but even then I would sacrifice myself for the children I serve. They are the next generation of my species. I must protect them, at the cost of my own life if necessary.

I have supplies of food, but what have in greatest supply is not something anyone can take away from me and what THEY need to help THEM survive. I have what I hold in my head. My memory is astounding, and so is my ability to calculate. Its what brought me to Stuyvesant and then into the Ivy League schools. I use it not to TAKE from people, but to give back to them as much as I can. It saddens me that others with this gift used it to hurt people. They in fact populate this board in some numbers also, and it hasn't been easy for me to argue on the board here without it bothering some. So be it. I argue the Truth as I see it, that is all.

Reverse Engineer

You forgot to mention that you're very self-effacing too

[ReverseEngineer]

You forgot to mention that you're very self-effacing too

Modesty has NEVER been one of my virtues I am thoroughly bombastic and egotistical, anybody could see that one in a MINUTE. Annoys the heck out of most people. I live with that

Anyhow, the truth remains the truth, I just will argue the point to distraction and annoy people with the ego involved in this . Feel free to call me an egotistical a$$hole, its been done many times. I just argue it as I see it, and I do know how to do this well. One of the jobs I held for years was teaching Arguments to wannabee Lawyers for the LSAT for the Princeton Review. Its a game I play, and it ticks people off I know, but gee, if you know how to do it, why not do it? Long as you aren't taking food out of the mouths of others, I see nothing wrong with carving up an argument
Reverse Engineer

[Leanan]

The flowchart neglects to mention the downside of cash that most people worry about.

Suze Orman said her doorman freaked out about the banking crisis, and pulled out all his money - $17,000. Someone broke into his apartment and robbed him of every cent.

Suze is definitely drinking the koolaid, but she has a point. The reason most people keep their money in the bank is not the interest, which is negligible, but because they don't feel safe having a lot of cash around.

[swifty]

The concern I have is my puny little IRA which is currently in a Money Market account. If I pull it i lose alot of it. If I leave it I may lose ALL of it!
Not sure what to do and it may be too late anyway?? Any input welcome.

[hope_full]

What does the port of Long Beach have to do with Martial Law being declared? Please help me understand the connection.

I saw something about the closure of that port on drudge, but now it's gone. Any links?

Hope_Full

[DeepOil]

If I pull cash out and don't want it to be stolen, can I keep it in a safe deposit box at the bank? What happens if the bank collapses or there is a bank holiday? Do I still have access to the safe deposit box or could that money be taken?

Thanks

[smallpoxgirl]

Yeah. I don't think the world is ending today. The market's been open for half an hour, and so far the Dow is down 70 points. Crude, silver, and the dollar are down slightly. Gold is up slightly to 903. Nothing earth shattering. A couple of financial stocks are taking it on the nose, especially Wachovia.