BANK RUNS

[Straight Shooter]

Is anyone keeping an eye on bank runs ? Are you holding cash just in case ? Are you concerned about a domino affect ? And what that will mean for all of us ? ……do you even care ? .

[bigpaul]

well so far its only Silicone Valley Bank and Credit Suisse, not any of the main banks and no main UK banks, we had that back in 2008, maybe UK banks learned from the crash back then.
just to be on the safe side keep some cash just in case.

[iaaems]

It makes sense to always have a bit of 'spare' cash to hand if at all possible and to check the bank account details on a regular basis. As this is easily done 'online' these days a daily exercise should not be out of the question - in my opinion. So far this has worked well for me.
I also believe that there is a guarantee on bank and building society accounts which is given by the Government - up to a certain level. Please correct me if I am wrong!
Hopefully the SVB and CS activity will not be the start of something bigger - but you never can tell at this stage.

[Mortblanc]

Almost everyone on this forum is old enough to have lived through, and should well remember, the savings and loan crash of the late 1980s, the tech bubble crash of the late 1990s, the housing bubble crash of the late 2000s,,,,do we see the pattern yet?

We will not even discuss the crash of the late 1970s due to the Arabs gaining control of the world economy. Some of you might not be old enough to remember that one.

Bank failures and bank runs are a subject we have discussed infinitely on this and every other prepper forum since the internet was invented. Everyone here knows the risks of using banks, their strengths and weaknesses.

There should be not a single person here that has any undue risk from any failure of any bank if they have followed the advice of countless posts all over the web. Not to risk what you can not afford to loose, all your eggs in one basket and that sort of thing.

If you do have an account that totals more then the guarenteed amount covered by the government I have no great pity for you. You should have had your money in a place where it was/is earning higher dividends anyway.

Bank runs are the result of human fear and stupidity. Such actions feed on themselves, as they are doing in the present case.

SVB was an institution offered totally as a corporate money management service. The only "individual" accounts in the bank were those of bank employees. The general public had no risk money in SVB and SVB had no influence on private banks other then the possibility of the panic runs of a heard of sheep.

SVB was required to invest excess deposits in the most secure manner possible. That manner was totally secure treasury bonds that had a yield of almost zero. As soon as the FED raised interest rates to higher then the bond yields it threw SVB into instant bankruptcy.

As they tried to sell off the bonds at reduced rates to regain stability their customers shifted their accounts to other banks. The leader of the stampede was the owner of PayPal.

When SVB deposit totals fell below the minimum government guidelines it instantly triggered a shutdown of the bank according to the "safety measures" instituted by the government.

Apparently no one broke the law, no one stole anything. They used the system as it was prescribed and followed the rules. It was the rules that killed them.

They were required to invest short term money on long term assets.

A violation of basic business finance that occurs due to turning over control of your banking industry to the legislative branch, made up of the members of the sheep flock that think they are smarter than the rest of the flock, and computers with instant triggering devices controlled by AI.

[CharlesHarris]

Accurate analysis.

[iaaems]

With regard to the Guarantee on Accounts it would appear that an account in a single name is supported up to £85,000 and a joint account double that amount.
I stand to be corrected on this item.
It would seem that if you have more than the above figure at your disposal then you need to open another account.
I should be so lucky!!!

[Straight Shooter]

Guarantee ? Backed by the government ? The banks do not hold enough reserves to cover all customers who hold £1000 to 85,000 in any event , so where is this money coming from ? ……the gov ? …..how would they pay you out ….via what method and who would they pay out first ? And how long would that take to get done ? …
The banks would offer share certificates ….I O U s instead of cash ….so you would hold shares in a bank that’s not even solvent ? …..then some bright spark will try to sell us a new digital system , and all us dull bastards will grab the new system with both hands because we can buy beer , fags , and food again …..totally oblivious to the fact that we are now totally fucked and enslaved ……..I am so glad to have cheered you all up !

[iaaems]

I have done a bit of searching with regard to 'guarantees'.
The following may help
https://www.fscs.org.uk/what-we-cover/

Hopefully I have typed it correctly.

[Straight Shooter]

Many thanks Iaaems ! And yes I have read the document but my questions remain , with particular regard to major banks breaking down and the domino effect of all others including central banks worldwide ……if the plan is a new digital currency ….by what means would back this currency ? Given all the BRICS countries are buying gold and silver ? What is stopping them from developing their own currency backed with their gold holdings and bypass the U.S. dollar and the swift payment system ? Then we return to how our currant system pays out quarantines ? .

[Mortblanc]

I do not understand your reasoning SS?

No one has backed their currency dollar for dollar, pound for pound with gold or silver since the invention of currency. As soon as the first one pound note, or one dollar bill, was printed the joke was up since there had not been a full value coin minted in decades and note are cheaper to make.

Devaluation of the amount of precious metals in the coin has always been an easy method of expanding the power of the state. It goes back to the bronze age and the thing is that no one could tell the difference between a good coin and a bad one. When all trust was finally lost they recalled all the coin and had a reissue at a very unsatisfactory conversion rate.

In our case over here our coins are all copper or aluminum sandwiches with a good bit of plastic inside. Our one cent piece is no longer made of copper because it takes more than one cent to mint the copper coin.

No one is going to start a new currency based on precious metals because it is too restrictive on the government finance to do so, and they absolutely can not return to specie value based on the present currency. That would require the mentioned complete recall of all specie and a reissue of new, at a very unsatisfactory exchange rate!

Even in the old days there was no requirement for enough precious metal to back each note of currency printed, only a percentage.

As for the digital currency? Are you really avoiding it?

As a retired person do you go to the mailbox once a month and remove a stack of gold bullion?

Do you even get a check mailed to your address?

I don't !!! Probably no one does any longer, anywhere.

My retirement income is transferred directly to my account and by some miracle of technology I am some amount of money better off than I was the night before when I went to sleep. I can pay my bills without leaving the keyboard and I can buy my groceries, have it delivered and pay for it without leaving the house,, but only if I pay with card.

But you don't operate like that??? No you draw your money out as soon as it goes in, carry thousands in your pocket and pay cash for everything, or leave it in (where it is the "at risk" money we are speaking of) and pay by check. A check that when given is instantly scanned and turned into digital money and instantly withdrawn from your account just as if it were a debit card.

I used to refuse to shop in stores where they used a laser to scan the purchase. Too much like "big brother" I said. I got over that in the early 1990s. They don't even put prices on the packages any more, anywhere! It's all scanned! Not a single store, large or small, operates without a scanner.

I am now finding more and more stores that refuse cash and check and operate only on card. At my favorite lumber store there are a half dozen self checkout scanners, only one of them accepts cash.

Dealing with cash at the retail level is now considered a very expensive part of the operation. I requires daily accounting and trips to the bank with deposits. It requires people smart enough to do those jobs also, and they are getting scarce. Scarce and unaffordable! I have a niece, a high achieving student, that turned down a retail job once because the cash register did not compute the change for her. She considered it lack of efficiency in management to waste her time computing change. A sign of bad management that would be a constant issue.

And it is.

More and more of my shopping is done on line and just try to have a shipment from Timbuktu delivered with the UPS man to pick up a fist full of cash and give you back change!

Bubble and bust, the present system is no worse than the systems that proceeded it. There have been bank runs since we stopped using barter and a batch of bad butter or cheese or a plague of hoof and mouth could send barter to he!! and back.

There have also been recessions and booms forever, many of them due to the very precious metals you have such faith in. Just look back at what the big gold rushes of the past did to the world economies. Increase the amount of gold and decrease the value of what you already hold! Yes it works like that.

Come out with a new model smart phone and decrease the value of silver due to the old phones being recycled for their metals.

Thieves don't even steal the whole car any more, just the catytelic converter for its platinum.

No matter what system you come up with there is no 100% guarantee of security. Never has been and never will be.

All you can do is plant more veg and pray for a good crop.

And then there is that famine thing, and plague, and bad weather, and the thatch on the roof catching fire.....

You say it's security you are wanting?