Preparedness for when

Blue_Doggy

Thinking today not only of those poor souls in Ramadi, and indeed the rest of Iraq and Syria, but also the desperate Rohingya and Bangladeshi people adrift in the seas off south-east Asia.

There are no words.

[Deleted User]

Also the nepalese nation trying to exist and rebuild after those devastating earthquakes. It makes all the little everyday niggles that disrupt and annoy fade into insignificance by comparison doesn't it?

moneyistooshorttomention

jk0 wrote: »

Not sure if it was a prophetic dream or just my own muddled thinking, but it recently struck me that a 'bail in' could be effected by a change in the currency to say SDR's.

They wouldn't need to print any more notes or coins. Just even paying for a newspaper would be done by tapping your debit card.

All existing notes, coins & deposits could be declared worthless overnight. Thus the banks would get a wonderful boost, as most of their debts would evaporate.

From the point of view of a heavily indebted government and banking system, what's not to like?

The bricks through the windows? - quite possibly theirs personally.....

Frugalsod

jk0 wrote: »

Not sure if it was a prophetic dream or just my own muddled thinking, but it recently struck me that a 'bail in' could be effected by a change in the currency to say SDR's.

They wouldn't need to print any more notes or coins. Just even paying for a newspaper would be done by tapping your debit card.

All existing notes, coins & deposits could be declared worthless overnight. Thus the banks would get a wonderful boost, as most of their debts would evaporate.

From the point of view of a heavily indebted government and banking system, what's not to like?

It would not work like that.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-19/cashless-society

It would mean that people would have to pay in all their cash, but once in there would be nothing to stop the government imposing negative interest rates on all savings which would be a tax in all but name.

Also it could result in everyone adopting another currency as the new currency. Remember in the US Tide washing detergent became the currency of drug dealers.

The banks would be no better off except for that they might expect to rake in more fees for payments clearing. It might put more small businesses out of business.

GreyQueen

One thing I always note is that no matter what is going on, and where, and in what historic period, that the black economy always functions. It isn't right, or just, or law-abiding, but it always functions, somehow. Sometimes, when the so-called proper economy has failed utterly, the black economy is the only functional one.

Imagine a mental exercise where we are truly cashless. The banks would have small business by the short-and-curlies in terms of charges applied for handling their transactions. How would the tens of millions of used items which change hands at carbooters, garage sales, jumblies and charity shops be bought and sold? How would the corrupt receive their kickbacks if the only option was to be paid in expensive (and highly visible) property and toys or traceable credit transfers? How would banks make the profits they do by cleaning up the dirty money made by criminals? What would be the point of most tanning parlours and nail bars and some nightclubs, if not laundering dirty money back into the economy? What about the so-called law enforecement agencies making their buck off the drugs trade (eg USA)?

Can the legitimate economy ever function without the black economy? Should you not be allowed to transact such business as you see fit in it? I spend my legitiamately-earned and previously-taxed income mostly in cash, and I regard what I buy as my business and no one else's.

I know people who work in bureaux de change. The big banks don't like the medium and small players in this field and are trying to drive them out of business by refusing to sell currency to the mediums, who then cannot sell to the small fish. The banks make 5% on the currency when they buy it and another 5% when they sell, some of the small outfits are operating on a profit margin of <1%. But the big boys don't like the public to have options and are trying to drive them out of business. Would they really want to forgo such easy money for a cashless world?

The stated reason is to prevent money laundering via smaller bureaux, of course. Which is priceless, considering the criminality of some of the big banks in this very area, such as AitchEssBeeCee, who have been fined eye-watering amounts for laundering drug cartel money.

They probably used T i d e, come to think of it.

Frugalsod

The problem with all these cashless plans is that they are designed by economists who think that the reason that the economy is not back to normal is that we are hoarding money and not spending it. They might get a nasty surprise when they do ban cash and find that the economy does not improve. As GreyQueen said the black market will find a way around this. It will be honest businesses that suffer.

What would you do if they started deducting interest from all your savings? I suspect that you might actually cut back spending elsewhere to keep your bank balance at the same level. If everyone did that deflation would worsen and they might try even lower negative interest rates. What this would do would demonstrate that the Tories are no more competent economically than a 5 year old.

There was an interesting piece on Zerohedge about how over valued the stock-market is, and how far it could fall.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-19/are-stocks-bonds-due-generational-75-crash

At this stage it is anyones guess what the trigger for its collapse is. It could be falling sales and then people trying to cover losses elsewhere or losses in the property market and selling stocks to pay off debts and losses. Either way it will eventually lead to the financial collapse that should have been allowed to happen in 2008. Now we have even more debt to write off.

GreyQueen

Most people rather enjoy spending money. Wine rather than tap water. Takeouts over beans on toast at home. We like buying new things, shiny things, pretty things, things which go VROOM!!!!! and meals that we don't have to cook ourselves or wash up after. Holibobs are always a popular treat.

If people aren't spending money, there are usually very sound reasons. Which economists would know about if they removed their heads from their derrieres and actually met and mingled with a broad spectrum of Real People, particularly the vast majority of the population who are on modest-to-low incomes.

If your costs of living go up, whilst your wages are static or falling, you spend less. If your employment is looking precarious, you spend less. If your health is becoming erratic, and you are concerned about your ongoing ability to earn, you spend less. If the interest on your savings now has to be found with a magnifying glass, you spend less. If your little shop, stall, cafe or whatever, is turning over fewer sales, you spend less.

All these things are blindingly obvious to Joe and Josephine Soap, who have the great advantage of not being economists. But the big brains in that profession seem incapable of grasping cause-and-effect.

Reviewing my personal spending for May 2015 to date, I have spent £20 on archery lessons, £11.50 on a coach ticket and £5 for charity. That is the sum total of my elective spending, every other penny was on bills and groceries. This is a fairly typical month, too.

daz378

just posted on tv media forum

I live on flats with sky....so only one recording channel ... recently ive been getting no signal on some of the terrestrial channels and a few others...... and also been overheating. i get hd entertainment + movies for this i pay about 54 + 20 pound bt still in contract and 18 quid talk talk not in contract.......so tomorrow resolved to get a better deal somehow.........complain about sky tryand get discount should i switch to sky broadband (would like fibre) wish me luck

recent posts have reminded me i should hold more folding stuff.....will need to quicken, as i usually throw change and pound coins in jars for treats on my next annual leave.........dads started giving 400 gram tins of samon now ... im prepping without trying.....take care

Frugalsod

daz378 wrote: »

just posted on tv media forum

I live on flats with sky....so only one recording channel ... recently ive been getting no signal on some of the terrestrial channels and a few others...... and also been overheating. i get hd entertainment + movies for this i pay about 54 + 20 pound bt still in contract and 18 quid talk talk not in contract.......so tomorrow resolved to get a better deal somehow.........complain about sky tryand get discount should i switch to sky broadband (would like fibre) wish me luck

recent posts have reminded me i should hold more folding stuff.....will need to quicken, as i usually throw change and pound coins in jars for treats on my next annual leave.........dads started giving 400 gram tins of samon now ... im prepping without trying.....take care

Getting everything with one provider is fine if the service is good, but I decided that the sky TV package was not worth it for me. It might be a very different preposition if you have kids and there are more of you watching it.

I get my TV from Freeview, phone from BT and broadband unlimited from Sky. All for £20 a month. My mobile is £7 a month and covers all my calls, and I have Netflix for £7 a month so I get as much entertainment as I need and all pretty cheap. So I get it for all for £34 a month. £50 if you include the TV license.

Keeping the coins is a good way to save. When I worked out what percentage of my spend was collected in coins it turned out at about 25% of what I would draw out of the bank. It might actually be an even higher percentage now as I put what ever notes are left over into another can and start again.

jk0

I wonder if the Greeks are more likely to save coins rather than notes in view of Greek Euro notes actually being identifiable?