Is it time to take your money out of the bank?

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The Great Depression did weird things to the people who lived through it. I've heard of people storing dozens of buckets of coins in their garages. One couple punched a hole in the wall of their house and threw coins in there. When the house was demolished, the workers found thousands of old coins in the wall. Other people stored ANYTHING that "might be useful", food containers, scraps of cloth, old envelopes, etc. Some people used the same ziploc bags for a decade. I heard of a woman who patched her bedsheets unto the crack of doom, because she couldn't bear to "waste" money on new sheets. In my family, my mother's father preferred to keep his stash of tools up to date, because he figured that come hard times he could always use his skills at fixing and building things (sheds, electronics, cars, etc) to earn a living. He did use his tools, and he used them until they wore out, and he kept all of them. Indeed, today it's the people who have tangible skills who are doing the best. All those liberal arts grads are finding that their degrees aren't worth the paper they're printed on.

I lived there for several years and have family there. We skype people there and listen to Icelandic radio and TV over the net. Things are rather bad, but for most people, the shoe has not fallen yet. Most people still have their jobs and are going through the motions of 'normal' life, but many of them are only doing busy work because of the import/export situation ... most economic activity is put on hold because planning for the future is impossible. Food is available in the stores; food and medicine are still being imported, but it is difficult to get foreign currency for anything else. The price of milk is scheduled to go up 10 Krona a liter, and that is just the beginning. Icelanders traveling abroad used to be able to use their Visa and Mastercard and pay 80 Krona for a US dollar - it is now over 200 Krona for a US dollar, and there are limits on how much they can spend. Yesterday, the TV reported a study from Danske Bank that inflation would hit 50-100% in the next months. The standard of living will fall. People with foreign currency loans on their apartments will soon go into foreclosure unless something is done. Unemployment of 20-30% is possible within the year.

You might be interested in the blog www.icelandweatherreport.com - it is written by a woman in Iceland. In the most recent post, she compares what Iceland is going through now with what Thailand went through a few years ago.



That was part of it - there was a tightening of credit (due to market speculation and other things). When credit tightened, people rushed to the banks to remove their money, which naturally made things even worse. Today, the FDIC and other programs mean that the average person Does Not Need to Worry - they will not lose the insured money (up to $100,000 for each person's bank account, I think). Other parts of the system are locked up or hurting- for example, municipal bond credit has dried up, making it difficult for cities, counties, and states to borrow long term, which means they will be doing less. One public utility I know of has canceled most of their maintenance projects and laid people off.

i find the similarities between us aspies very funny

ive always dreamt of pulling all my money out and buying a shotgun! lol

Monty responded to my query with:

thankyou so much for sharing this reality.....I just wanted to touch base with you.....because I need time to research and read what's on this site.....I will come back .....with my thoughts as soon as possible.....just didn't want to leave you hanging.....cause I really appreciate your response.....talk later.

No, I wouldn't take my money out of the bank, period.
My question is, what will the worth of money be soon?