Wednesday, January 25, 2006

You can't spell "Apocalypse" without a "Why?"

An odd story on Bellacio, by "Notepad" (a writer previously unknown to me), predicts economic collapse in the United States. Some of the listed reasons are familiar (massive debt held by China, Iran switching to the euro) but this bit was new:
Bank Of America and Compass Bank managers (probably all other U.S. banks too) have been instructing their employees in the last few weeks on how to respond to customer demands in the event of a collapse of the U.S. economy - specifically telling the employees that only agents from the Department Of Homeland Security will have authority to decide what belongings customers may have from their safe deposit boxes - and that precious metals and other valuables will not be released to U.S. citizens. The bank employees have been strictly prohibited from revealing the banks’ new "guidelines" to anyone. (however, employees have been talking to friends and family)
Is this claim just "idle scaremongering," as one of the Bellacio comentators suggests? Probably. I sure as hell haven't been able to find any verification.

Still, it can't hurt to ask if any of my readers works in a B of A, or knows someone who does...

Another comment following that story is also worth quoting:
The Iranian bourse is scheduled to open in March. Elections for the 17th Knesset will be held in Israel on 28 March. The Fed will hide the M-3 effective March 2006. The US mid-term elections take place in June. My guess is that something will happen during April or May. I don’t think the international community has the appetite for yet another unjustified, illegal war, particularly if Iran accepts Russia’s enrichment offer. All these new Osama videos surfacing, the foiled plot to kidnap Leo Blair, Al Qaeda’s threat to attack UN offices in Pakistan, etc. When you are desperate you’ll do anything. It pains me to think about the possibilities here.
Of course, the general elections will take place in November, although a number of primaries will happen in June.

5 comments:

none said...

Ah the doomsday scenario



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Anonymous said...

this thread is interesting. And concerning.

Anonymous said...

yeah, all these pieces are in place. had not heard about the banks briefing the staff; that does not sound too plausible. however, fdr did order a fed officer to be present for any and all openings of safety deposit boxes, and no one was allowed to keep gold. so, don't know if this assertion is a true forecast or just speculation based on the past.

despite all the pieces falling into place, there are still some brakes on the process in that it's not entirely clear how enthused most other countries - including china - would be to flush the us economy down the toilet, as we represent the consumers for their products, which ultimately supports their own economic stability.

the bourse is key in understanding why the current push to bomb iran (and why we invaded iraq), but it seems to me this process will take more than a few months to deteriorate to apocalypse.

but not much. i'm guessing less than three years. and when it goes, hoo boy; like the guy said, it will make the great depression look like ...hm, not so much a bounced check as a picnic.

think about it: in 1929, 90+% of the us population was agrarian and had their own wells, gardens, woodstoves, kerosene lamps, and out houses. still, things were pretty bad. now, everyone's on the grid, and without oil, we'll have no electricity, no heat, no transport for food, etc., etc., etc.

really grim picture.

Anonymous said...

I was at my bank - IBC - and asked a teller about this and she denied knowing anything about it. Hmmm

Anonymous said...

keep all your metals at home anyway...