During the 2024 presidential race, Donald Trump repeatedly claimed that the U.S. economy was terrible under then-President Joe Biden and then-Vice President Kamala Harris. But according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) figures, unemployment stayed under 4.0 percent from February 2022 through...
People know that banks engage in all sorts of complex, stupid, and risky financial derivatives engineering. The only reason anyone has confidence in the banks is due to FDIC insurance. If they fuck with that, it will trigger a run on every bank in the country. I imagine Congress would step in to stabilize things, but it could be quite hairy for awhile.
Honestly, right now, for those who are able, keeping a decent chunk of cash in your mattress is no longer the game of cranks and weirdos.
Most people have no idea what FDIC is. They have confidence in banks because “that’s where you put money”. They have no concept of what their personal bank failing would mean.
If Musk said he was shutting down the FDIC, the vast majority of people wouldn’t care until after their bank failed. By then it would be too late.
Another smart idea is moving cash out of the dollar.
I’m personally not too worried about a complete collapse of the dollar. People like to pretend that the dollar isn’t backed by anything simply because it isn’t exchangeable for gold. But it is backed by something. It’s backed by the combined economic output of 330 million people, the largest or second largest economy in the world (depending how you measure), the most powerful military in the history of the world, and a terrifying arsenal of 5,000 thermonuclear nuclear warheads. Ultimately THAT is what the dollar is backed by.
You could collapse the banking system and wipe out everyone’s savings, but the fundamental foundations of the value of the US currency would still be there. The military would still exist. The vast resources, infrastructure, and human resources of the populace would still exist, etc. I personally do not think it likely that the currency will simply disappear. I’m more concerned about a mass bank run scenario than money literally becoming worthless. If anything, such a crisis would likely be deflationary rather than inflationary. It’s possible the value of American dollars would actually soar in that scenario.
But if you do want a hedge against complete currency failure, I understand. But I would be specific about what “out of the dollar” really means. It doesn’t mean gold or bitcoin. Bitcoin and other crypto is already a huge bubble, and it’s propped up by the same clique of tech bastards that risk crashing our economy right now. If the tech bros crash the banking system, going into a store and trying to pay for something in crypto is likely to see you lynched.
As for gold? Actually paying for things in gold in a crisis is a right-wing prepper fantasy. An amount of gold equal in mass to a penny is worth about $250. It’s just too valuable per gram to be usable as a currency. In ye olden days, they did use gold as a currency in some times and places, but people had the infrastructure to handle it. How many stores have you been in recently that have fine milligram scales at their checkout counters? Do you have the tools to handle small quantities of gold dust? Gold may be useful as an investment vehicle to whether a crisis. But in terms of actually buying the essentials of life during an economic crisis, it’s useless.
If you’re worried about the dollar itself collapsing, look at what’s happened in countries that actually have had their currencies collapse. Look at countries like Zimbabwe. When currencies collapse, people don’t start using gold or other precious metals. They tend to just switch to other currencies that haven’t collapsed. People in Zimbabwe didn’t switch to gold. They instead started using American dollars, Euros, and the currencies of adjacent countries.
If you’re in the US and worried about dollars themselves becoming worthless, you should keep a stockpile of Canadian dollars, Mexican pesos, Euros, Chinese Yuan, etc. I think Canadian dollars and Euros would probably be the the currencies that people would most likely accept in the event of a complete collapse of the US dollar.
I seem to remember visiting their homepage last year sometime, and every headline was some variation on [Name of politician][aggressive verb][target of ire][reason for the spat], e.g.:
“John Bloggins slams Joe Blow for wearing a plaid tie”
“Mary Sue rips Judicial Committee for goat scandal”
“Peter Flarking haymakers Geraldo over unreturned library books”
5% is a free fall? They’re going to run out of superlatives next month.
Wait til these idiots try to abolish the FDIC.
People know that banks engage in all sorts of complex, stupid, and risky financial derivatives engineering. The only reason anyone has confidence in the banks is due to FDIC insurance. If they fuck with that, it will trigger a run on every bank in the country. I imagine Congress would step in to stabilize things, but it could be quite hairy for awhile.
Honestly, right now, for those who are able, keeping a decent chunk of cash in your mattress is no longer the game of cranks and weirdos.
Most people have no idea what FDIC is. They have confidence in banks because “that’s where you put money”. They have no concept of what their personal bank failing would mean.
If Musk said he was shutting down the FDIC, the vast majority of people wouldn’t care until after their bank failed. By then it would be too late.
I assume you meant stabilize, but given that Congress is controlled by Republican freaks, I’m unsure.
You are correct on both counts!
Another smart idea is moving cash out of the dollar.
I’m personally not too worried about a complete collapse of the dollar. People like to pretend that the dollar isn’t backed by anything simply because it isn’t exchangeable for gold. But it is backed by something. It’s backed by the combined economic output of 330 million people, the largest or second largest economy in the world (depending how you measure), the most powerful military in the history of the world, and a terrifying arsenal of 5,000 thermonuclear nuclear warheads. Ultimately THAT is what the dollar is backed by.
You could collapse the banking system and wipe out everyone’s savings, but the fundamental foundations of the value of the US currency would still be there. The military would still exist. The vast resources, infrastructure, and human resources of the populace would still exist, etc. I personally do not think it likely that the currency will simply disappear. I’m more concerned about a mass bank run scenario than money literally becoming worthless. If anything, such a crisis would likely be deflationary rather than inflationary. It’s possible the value of American dollars would actually soar in that scenario.
But if you do want a hedge against complete currency failure, I understand. But I would be specific about what “out of the dollar” really means. It doesn’t mean gold or bitcoin. Bitcoin and other crypto is already a huge bubble, and it’s propped up by the same clique of tech bastards that risk crashing our economy right now. If the tech bros crash the banking system, going into a store and trying to pay for something in crypto is likely to see you lynched.
As for gold? Actually paying for things in gold in a crisis is a right-wing prepper fantasy. An amount of gold equal in mass to a penny is worth about $250. It’s just too valuable per gram to be usable as a currency. In ye olden days, they did use gold as a currency in some times and places, but people had the infrastructure to handle it. How many stores have you been in recently that have fine milligram scales at their checkout counters? Do you have the tools to handle small quantities of gold dust? Gold may be useful as an investment vehicle to whether a crisis. But in terms of actually buying the essentials of life during an economic crisis, it’s useless.
If you’re worried about the dollar itself collapsing, look at what’s happened in countries that actually have had their currencies collapse. Look at countries like Zimbabwe. When currencies collapse, people don’t start using gold or other precious metals. They tend to just switch to other currencies that haven’t collapsed. People in Zimbabwe didn’t switch to gold. They instead started using American dollars, Euros, and the currencies of adjacent countries.
If you’re in the US and worried about dollars themselves becoming worthless, you should keep a stockpile of Canadian dollars, Mexican pesos, Euros, Chinese Yuan, etc. I think Canadian dollars and Euros would probably be the the currencies that people would most likely accept in the event of a complete collapse of the US dollar.
What should paycheck to paycheck people do (serious question)?
Are you surprised!? It has always been based on feels unless you think (check notes) Telsa is worth $360 per share.
I know, right? If you look at the PE ratio between say, Ford, and Tesla, it’s almost comical.
Shhhh the cybercucks might hear you.
Cybertrucks can’t hear very well. They have rust in their ears
Lemmy User Slams Rawstory
Lemmy user verbally eviscerated in legendary comment thread [xpost MurderedByWords CleverComebacks]
Reported sightings of a Pegasus
I seem to remember visiting their homepage last year sometime, and every headline was some variation on [Name of politician][aggressive verb][target of ire][reason for the spat], e.g.:
“MAGA republicans slam Trump for …” and your read the article and it’s one isolated tweet from some rando nobody heard of before.