[RedStateGreen]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('IslandCrow', 'C')ould the average person last a week with no chance to buy food?

[jbrovont]

Yes indeed.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Shannymara', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dunewalker', 'P')ure conjecture here: The threat of a "bank holiday" has been quietly issued by Paulsen, et al to coerce passage of the bailout bill in the house. If the bill fails to pass, I wouldn't put it past them to pull such a stunt, just as they probably staged the largest Dow drop in history (points) in retaliation for the first house NO vote. At that point, America will definitely be putty in their hands.

[RedStateGreen]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Shannymara', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dunewalker', 'P')ure conjecture here: The threat of a "bank holiday" has been quietly issued by Paulsen, et al to coerce passage of the bailout bill in the house. If the bill fails to pass, I wouldn't put it past them to pull such a stunt, just as they probably staged the largest Dow drop in history (points) in retaliation for the first house NO vote. At that point, America will definitely be putty in their hands.

[Ferretlover]

Thinking out loud: Sssooo.. If someone Wanted to start widespread bank runs, what would they do? Perhaps Start a bank holiday rumor? Then, have the "reason" to do something else?

[IslandCrow]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('RedStateGreen', 'G')ood God almighty. Have you not been reading anything on this site? Of course they can't.

[RedStateGreen]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('IslandCrow', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('RedStateGreen', 'G')ood God almighty. Have you not been reading anything on this site? Of course they can't.

[burtonridr]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('RedStateGreen', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('IslandCrow', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('RedStateGreen', 'G')ood God almighty.Have you not been reading anything on this site? Of course they can't.

[Newfie]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('burtonridr', '"')

Step one: scare people
Step two: offer a solution
Step three: pass new law and take more freedoms away.

[aflurry]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mattduke', 'W')hen banks cannot meet their obligations, they are simply allowed to break their contracts.

[jbrovont]

Quite simply, it means one law for people like you and me, and a different law for banks and elites.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('aflurry', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mattduke', 'W')hen banks cannot meet their obligations, they are simply allowed to break their contracts.

[smallpoxgirl]

Yeah. It's pretty hard for me to imagine how a bank holiday would work in the era of Debit cards. Lots of people use the cards to pay for everything. I'm one of them. I have some emergency cash on hand now, but most people don't. Within two days the whole US would look like post-Katrina New Orleans. I suspect that in this day and age rather than a flat out holiday, they'd do something more along the lines of what Argentina did back in 2000 and strictly limit how much you can withdraw within a certain period of time. If I recall correctly, in Argentina they limited people to $500 a month in withdrawals or something like that.

[eXpat]

A related article by Nouriel Roubini, is a good read link.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')t's plain that the current financial crisis is worsening in spite of--or perhaps because of--the Treasury rescue plan.

The strains in financial markets are becoming more, rather than less, severe in spite of the nuclear option of a $700 billion package: Interbank spreads are widening and are at a level never seen before; credit spreads are widening to new peaks; short-term Treasury yields are going back to near-zero levels as there is flight to safety; credit default swap (CDS) spreads for financial institutions are rising to extreme levels as the ban on shorting of financial stock has moved the pressures on financial firms to the CDS market; and stock markets around the world have reacted very negatively to this rescue package.
...
The next step of this panic could be the mother of all bank runs, i.e. a run on the trillion dollar-plus of the cross-border short-term interbank liabilities of the U.S. banking and financial system, as foreign banks start to worry about the safety of their liquid exposures to U.S. financial institutions. A silent cross-border bank run has already started, as foreign banks are worried about the solvency of U.S. banks and are starting to reduce their exposure. And if this run accelerates--as it may now--a total meltdown of the U.S. financial system could occur.

[jbrovont]

Civil unrest... If that was the intent of something like this, I suppose the gamble would be whether or not it could be contained.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('IslandCrow', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('RedStateGreen', 'G')ood God almighty. Have you not been reading anything on this site? Of course they can't.

[eXpat]

Wachovia already faced a ‘silent' bank run
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'O')n Friday, with its stock plunging 27 percent, Wachovia experienced a “silent run” on deposits, but the bigger worry for regulators was that other banks wouldn't provide the Charlotte bank with necessary short-term funding when it opened for business Monday, sources familiar with the situation told the Observer.
...
Inside Wachovia, executives started noticing customers withdrawing money on Friday morning, following the failure of Washington Mutual on Thursday. “The so-called silent run on the bank – it's real,” Carlos Evans, Wachovia's wholesale banking executive, said in an interview. “When Congress failed to pass the ($700 billion bailout) proposal, when WaMu collapsed, you could see the money flowing. My computer screen was lighting up.”

Starting Friday morning, Evans said, businesses and institutions with large accounts started withdrawing money to lower their balances to below the federally insured $100,000 limit. They weren't closing accounts, he said, adding “they were very apologetic in saying they love the service they get from Wachovia and they weren't leaving Wachovia. They were just moving their money until things settled down.”

Money flowed out of Wachovia throughout the weekend, said Evans who heard anecdotes and received memos and BlackBerry messages from bank employees in the field.

“What happened last week, and it literally happened that fast …You could go from being OK, hurt, weakened, there's no question the company was weakened… but you go from being weakened to in trouble in a matter of days,” he said. “I don't think people understand how quickly events unfolded.”
...
Wachovia's loss of deposits Friday was enough to catch the attention of the OCC, sources said. The WaMu failure as well as mounting speculation that Wachovia was for sale – it had been in earlier talks with Morgan Stanley – contributed to the run. By Friday afternoon, news leaked that Wachovia was talking to Citi and Wells Fargo.
...
The FDIC became more heavily involved as the weekend progressed because of its role in protecting consumer deposits. For the first time, the agency triggered a “systemic risk exception” under the 1991 law that allows it to ignore a requirement to choose the “least costly” method for resolving a failing bank.

[sittinguy]

The Wacovia in my town got cleanen out a few days ago. When I drove by there was a line of about 50 people, parking lot packed. It was sweet. I got a little doomer wood as I drove by.

[pedalling_faster]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('galacticsurfer', 'I') think this "inside story" stuff is important. I remember reading TOD threads where some guy says his brother was on a rig in the Gulf and had said whatwas the real story. Where do you get that sort of inside story on what is happening in the finances of bank and cities before they go down? Maybe on yahoo finance chat rooms or something.

[PrairieMule]

If I recall, there was a rumor floating around from folks on the inside that Oct 1 to be the day all the folks on the "red list" would be rounded up. I guess that didn't pan out.

I give it 50/50 odds. As in 50% that maybe it will or 50% that maybe it won't.

All you can do is stay calm and be ready to play from either side of the deck.

[Kristen]

If the worst case scenerio of a bank holiday were too happen, I doubt that mass chaos would ensue. People in The U.S. have developed an ecleptic avoidance learning technique to face these types of actions made by our rulers. People would just put a veil over there eyes as they went to the store and payed with whatever remaining change they could find.

"Although something may be convincing it is not necessarily true, merely convincing."

[DantesPeak]

Based upon our experience after September 11, 2001, the whole system could be made to shut down up to one week before chaos results.

However I doubt we are yet neat the point where a system wide shutdown is needed. That is - I doubt anything crazy will happen before election day.

[nobodypanic]

3rd infantry deployed to US.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he Army Times reports that the 3rd Infantry’s 1st Brigade Combat Team is returning from Iraq to defend the Homeland, as "an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks." The BCT unit has been attached to US Army North, the Army's component of US Northern Command (USNORTHCOM). (See Gina Cavallaro, Brigade homeland tours start Oct. 1, Army Times, September 8, 2008).