I watched Euro Countries during the financial meltdown. Some banned all large “dollar” amounts to combat black market activity.
Savings accounts took a “haircut” - ie negative interest rates-and those rates weren’t cheap. Some limited the amount of your own cash you could withdraw.
In Venezuela right now, the government continues to direct deposit pensions, but the bank won’t let you have the money. You have to stand in line for hours, to get a portion of what has been credited.
So far in the US, the preferred method is to use inflation to reduce the value of their debt, making your savings worth less in terms of purchasing power.
During the great inflation of Ford/Carter, the purchasing power was drastically reduced. A five year period of 50% inflation caused a lot of problems for most of us.
This is in reality a form of taxation, and one that people would rebel against if it came directly out of your pay check, or your savings account.
During last meltdown, there were some in Congress with eyes on your 401k’s. The Roth IRA was created to incentivize people to convert traditional IRAs, pay a capital gains tax, and thereby secure additional tax revenue.
The US dollar is loosing it’s status as reserve currency for several reasons, but one is because it gives us too much economic power over other countries. The G20 is coming up at the end of November.
They are in the process of redoing the international system. Under the plans they discussed and began implementing, the US dominance will be reduced, and China is to be included in the IMF SDRs.
At present, the US Fed has acted sort of like the Central Bank for the World. They want that function to move to the IMF. It will be interesting to see what comes next.
Past history has been that a monetary system lasts around 40 years, before it needs to be overhauled. Last overhaul happened around Nixon’s time after he closed the gold window, and the Petro Dollar was born.
Keep an eye out for the results of the G20. Keep you cash stash at lower denominations of less than or equal to $20 bills. Covert those $100 bills you have in your prepper supplies.
Better figure out where to stash your food and other preps too. They will come and get it if they need to, and you will be accused of hoarding.
“During the great inflation of Ford/Carter, the purchasing power was drastically reduced. A five year period of 50% inflation caused a lot of problems for most of us.”
It was the main reason for me enlisting in the Army. My folk couldn’t afford to send me to college; they had problems of their own with a 22% mortgage on our house!
Doesn’t seem real, does it? 22%? Yikes.
Good advice, as always, Greeneyes!