Something to think about, and to make contingency plans for (i.e., keep a substantial amount of cash in a safe and accessible place), from Bill Bonner, on theburningplatform.com:
Back in the Day …
The stock market paused to draw breath on Wednesday. The Dow ended up more or less where it started. Not a bad day. Not a good day either. There was no bounce after Tuesday’s dizzying slide.September 15, 2008, was a really bad day on Wall Street. Lehman Brothers sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The Dow plummeted more than 500 points.
Putnam Investments shut a $12.3 billion money-market fund. Mizuho Trust & Banking cut its profit forecast in half. And the New York Stock Exchange halted trading in Constellation Energy, after its stock dropped 57%.
But this was just the start, not the end …
The Day the Cash Disappeared
The following Thursday, the Federal Reserve noticed an odd and alarming trend: Cash was disappearing. Outflows from money market accounts topped $550 billion in less than two hours.If that had continued, Representative Paul Kanjorski of the 11th congressional district of Pennsylvania recalled:
“The Treasury opened up its window to help and pumped $105 billion into the system. And it quickly realized it could not stem the tide. We were having an electronic run on the banks. They decided to close down the operation… to close down the money accounts. […]
If they had not done so, in their estimation, by 2 p.m. that day $5.5 trillion would have been withdrawn. That would have collapsed the US economy. Within 24 hours, the world economy would have collapsed.
We talked at that time about what would have happened. It would have been the end of our economic and political system as we know it. People who say we would have gone back to the 16th century were being optimistic.”
http://www.theburningplatform.com/2015/03/15/go-to-an-atm-and-the-last-thing-youll-get-is-cash/
To continue reading: The Last Thing You’ll Get Is Cash
