Really Stupid Question Time - If Banks Simply Cancelled All Their Debt...

In a debt-deflation, it's just perfect.

Next stop: get some accessible savings in place to help you ride out any emergencies the crisis throws up.

FoFP

What - taking care of our money...? That would be a first... !!!!!

On the other hand, if the banks' Directors were asked to provide a personal guarantee, as most borrowers have to, then that might persuade people to deposit their money, and pay a modest fee :-))

Would you count our banked savings as such?

Thank you.

Sure, unless they're in Iceland, or get stranded in a bank due to some sort of government-mandated "Bank holiday" - paying attention to the news (or buying a safe) is mandatory in order to dodge such things.

FoFP

HBOS as it happens:) Would keeping cash in a safe really work? What if they fiddle around with the currency? I understand that we have a fiat currency and until I started to read this group, I had thought that hard gold would be the answer. But even that seems not to be the best idea. What would you do in our situation?

'Ophelia' wrote this:

In a normal world, borrowing is a way to increase wealth, but as M Holmes says, during a debt deflation period, it's bad news.

I have no debts at this time but lots of cash about...I've got my eye on poor interest returns...

'M Holmes' wrote this:

Right. I've already warned one bank that I'm close to pulling all my cash out due to appalling interest rates. If they start charging me for borrowing my money, that'll be it........!

aracari wrote: ?

I have an isa but it is tied to the stock market. Still, things are looking up a wee bit there:) I have lost money on it so far.

'Martin' wrote this:

Lol. I see banks are still marketing themselves as a nice cosy safe place to deposit your savings in. ho ho.

The big question being... where will you put it???

'Ophelia' wrote this:

Dunno how much your ISA is valued ...I have a pension pot which has probably lost 40% of value over the last year and I've virtually written it off as a serious future income...

Gee ..........Thanks Gordon!

'Ophelia' wrote this:

In a domestic safe. In my case that's quite secure :-)

Everybody would need to reflect on their own circumstances!

yep:(

True, but what concerns me, is if they starting mucking about with our currency.

start!!!

'Ophelia' wrote this:

If you have your stash in cash and they go into the euro, you would be able to change your stash for euros. However, if you were to pull out large sums of money to keep at home, retain a withdrawal document from the bank issued at the time.

That should avoid you being accused of being a drug dealer when you changed the cash for euros or wanted to deposit it in the bank again.

I have my cash in British banks and I have some gold. I keep an eye on the news in case some radical move like a bank holiday is afoot. The real risk to the gold is a large deflation (which would be good for the cash). The risk to the cash is that the government prints so much there's a huge inflation (which would be good for the gold).

The risk to everything is that the government prints so much we get a currency repudiation (the extreme of that is as in Zimbabwe but lesser versions could still be very harmful) and the government then announces a "Bank holiday" (we don't get to remove our cash from the banks for years as happened in Argentina) and some sort of moratorium on gold (as happened in the US in the 1930's.

Right now I'm not expecting the financial apocalypse (just something close to or actually a depression), but since the government seem determined to make it an active project, I keep an eye on things.

FoFP

I assume Advertising Standards Authority haven't spotted that... !!