[PopeGideon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')o you owe Paul 5 bucks. You borrow 5 from Peter and you pay Paul. Now Paul is out of the picture, and you owe Peter 5 bucks. You refinanced your debt.

[Ainan]

This financial crisis is nuts, so abstract. People are still producing goods and services, exchanging fiat currency, but the whole system is collapsing in on itself. Forgive my ignorance on the subject, but is the problem a lack of trust between investors due to the housing loans crap last year and the slow down in the global economy or is it a problem inherent in a fiat currency? Would this of still happened if every dollar has a set amount of gold to back it up? Then again that didn't stop the great depression. Economics is not a science...

[smallpoxgirl]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BillPeakOil', 'A')nd, its not like we can count on the FDIC if things get bad enough.

[vision-master]

Being a poor schmoe, the best I can do is squirrel away cash. I only keep what is needed for bills in my CU now and am working on building up those cash reserves.

[TheDude]

Amusing email in today's Automatic Earth:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')"Thank you for calling Buy-a-Bank," said an e-mail from a long-time reader. "Please listen carefully as our menu items have changed.

* For Mandarin, press 1.
* For Arabic, press 2.
* For takeover of Bear Stearns, press 3.
* For Lehman Brothers, press 4.
* For any monoline insurer, press 5.
* To purchase residual assets of defunct hedge funds, please stay on the line and an operator will assist you."

[alokin]

gorgeous, Dude!
I won't keep that much cash. I remember my nan talking about the Great Depression and they were always getting something as soon as the salaries arrived. We don't have much on the bank either, if there is a bit left over we're trying to pay back our mortgage in record speed.
What I do is go regularily to the Op shops and see if there are useful things, I think all these stuff like blankets, sheets, fabric are getting deerer overtime, especially if they cannot be imported from China (but Australia is closer to China)

[BigTex]

I've got this picture in my mind of a squirrel diligently collecting his acorns, storing them in the tree, preparing for winter.

Then a squirrel financial advisor comes by and talks the squirrel into turning over his nuts for a piece of paper describing a scheme in which his nuts will be loaned out to a series of other squirrels in other forests, and how there will be extra value created because of the nut arbitrage trade, which is driven by the seasonal cycles, rainfall patterns and slight differences in squirrel body fat ratios from forest to forest.

Even if the acorn scheme worked, the already-nervous squirrel would find that all he did anymore was sit around worrying about his RONI (return on nut investment) and the risk that his leveraged nuts posed both for him as well as all the other squirrels who had grown dependent upon it for survival.

He would start to long for the days when all he had to do was collect and store acorns for his own consumption. That just felt so much more natural, the squirrel would think to himself.

Eventually, the nut schemes would create a squirrel underworld:



Paramilitary squirrels to protect the nut trade:



Squirrel mythology to give meaning to squirrel nut traders' lives:



Fierce battles with predators for control of new nut markets:



Mass suicides when the nut market crashes:



Finally, squirrels return to sustainability and the old ways:

[Kristen]

Your best bet would be to buy ciggerettes and other goods and trade them for other things when the crisis occurs.

[FourOfSwords]

Great post BigTex. LOL. 'Then a squirrel financial advisor comes by and talks the squirrel into turning over his nuts'... 'the already-nervous squirrel'... I tell ya, I'd be nervous if someone came along and asked me to turn over my 'nuts'...
Cheers
Alex

[TheDude]

Most excellent. But what if the squirrels begin to use Photoshop?

[BigTex]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TheDude', ':')lol:

Most excellent. But what if the squirrels begin to use Photoshop?

[TheDude]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BigTex', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TheDude', ':')lol:

Most excellent. But what if the squirrels begin to use Photoshop?

[BigTex]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TheDude', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BigTex', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TheDude', ':')lol:

Most excellent. But what if the squirrels begin to use Photoshop?

[Ferretlover]

*rotflmao*

[eXpat]

Is there a Bank run happening NOW???
link to the PDF document : Federal Reserve Act
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'D')ear [ ]: This is in response to the request by [ ] “Bank”), [ ] for an exemption from section 23A of the Federal Reserve Act and the Board’s Regulation W to allow Bank to purchase certain assets from affiliated money market mutual funds. A subsidiary of [ ], Bank’s ultimate parent bank holding company, serves as investment adviser to a family of money market mutual funds (“the Funds”). Bank is proposing to purchase assets from the Funds to enable them to meet redemption requests without having to sell assets into the currently fragile and illiquid money markets. These purchases would be limited to an aggregate amount of [ ] of Bank’s capital stock and surplus, as of September 30, 2008, or approximately [