Thursday 11 March 2010

Can this guy start a chain reaction of bank runs in September?

Just saw a comment left by "Kieran_uk Mar-4" that I wondered if you might not find as intriguing as I did, on an article at http://abcnews.go.com/Business/economists-warn-financial-us-economy/story?id=9990828

Here's the comment in question:

Fractional Reserve Banking by it's very nature is money creation. The tightening of the money supply recently means that in order for bankers to continue their lifestyles and business practices they need to turn to the Government and consumer to find that missing money. Any use oof the TARP funds directly will have a paper trail. They also know that in the future, in order to keep their lifestyles, they need nothing to change.So, there will never be enough money ever again within the banking system in order to keep 15-25% of reserves. If the people really wish to make difference, then a clear signal needs to go out to the banks, and we can all make that signal very clear and very easily.We run on the banks.I would propose that in the week running up to September 1st, every customer with a bank account (checking or business) makes a withdrawal, in cash, of as much as they can afford. After September 1st they can just pay the cash back in, with a loss of 1 weeks laughable interest.This will give the banks 6 months to make amends themselves and change, in fact, we may never need to do anything, but it will put the power back to the people. If the banks refuse to change, then we will do it again and again until they get the message.The only way to make a bank listen, is to run on it.Week up to September 1st - spread the word.

Now, I'm not suggesting for a minute that I advocate this action (although I do always advocate keeping at least a couple of month's expenses at home in cash, just in case). However, it wouldn't require everyone at any one bank to take part, only a significant minority who could take out even say 1/10th of the cash that bank had available at the time and it would immediately lock up the bank's operations (see also my earlier post Our world balances on a sea of debt). Think back to Northern Rock for example, that bank run started with a small minority of deposits getting called initially but it very quickly expanded into queues or ordinary people queuing down the street to get their money out. Now imagine queues outside every bank. A scary mental image...

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