Maybe baloney

[potsNpans]

Dang, thought this was about deli meats

[rabbidrabbit]

Dang, thought this was about deli meats

Close.....  turned out to be spam.

[Meatwad]

The craze is all this crypto pretend money. Someone invents some magic currency that physically doesn't exist and people dump thousands into hardware to "mine" something that is non existant,  then place extremely over inflated value on it. Then when something bad happens, whoops, all your pretend money with pretend value no longer exists even though it never existed to begin with.

Truly a fools gold.

[CptTrips]

The craze is all this crypto pretend money. Someone invents some magic currency that physically doesn't exist and people dump thousands into hardware to "mine" something that is non existant,  then place extremely over inflated value on it. Then when something bad happens, whoops, all your pretend money with pretend value no longer exists even though it never existed to begin with.

Truly a fools gold.

Block-chain is an interesting technology.  It has some interesting possible uses.

And a government issued cryptocurrency might have some interesting limited uses.  Mostly transferring large amounts of money between institutions, like for the Fed.

But all the current crypto coins are not a currency.  If I can't pay my government taxes with it, it is not a currency.

And it certainly is not a "stable store of value" as the zealots love to claim a couple of years ago.  If you look at it's history, it has basically tracked the ups and downs of the NASDAQ almost exactly.  It should be thought of as a speculative tech stock.

However, there might be future uses of the crypto tokens other than as currency.  They are secure cryptographic tokens that would be very hard to hack.  Significant amounts of processing time were expended in generating each one, that would have to be redone again if you started with a new algorithm.  Someday, a better use for those tokens might a appear and the current tokens might could be repurposed.  So they probably have some speculative value.  No way to know what that is without knowing the eventual use, but I could believe $500-1000 range.  $20k, $30k, $60k is completely laughable.

Anyone finding the crypto coin mania fascinating should read up on the Tulip Mania.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania
Tulip bulbs also have some intrinsic value.  Maybe $0.50-3.00, and not $1k, 10k, 100k per bulb.  Things never end well when mania misprices assets.  It's all dancing until the music stops.  Don't be the one left holding the bag of dung.

So yes.  It's not going to end well for a lot of people.  Mostly young people who fell for that scam.  However, a young person will have decades to rebuild their wealth after a painful lesson that will hopefully last them the rest of their life.

We've seen banks that deserved to fail saved by the Gov.  But I assure you they won't lift a finger to help those sucked into crypto.  Nor should they.

[Vulcan]

Umm you guys are all wrong. Fednow appears to be a CBDC, nothing to do with crypto.

I know CBDC is needed in the USA because you have absolutely crap bank to bank settlement capabilities (as opposed to here in NZ where I can direct transfer money from my account to someone elses at a different bank and the money will be in their account within an hour).

[CptTrips]

Umm you guys are all wrong. Fednow appears to be a CBDC, nothing to do with crypto.

I didn't say FedNow was crypto.  I said it was a digital currency. 

In discussing the extreme distortions the economy has gone through, the conversation drifted into crypto as another example of the excess.

What must have threw you is I did mention a proposed Fed crypto coin in the discussion of crypto, but that was not referring to FedNow.

[Vulcan]

Ah ok. I've got my head in the CBDC space at the moment as we are looking at doing it NZ. However the banks here all allow direct credits between each other very easily and without any real cost. In NZ you cannot do anything with a bank acct number except send it $$$. So it's very safe and a very common thing.

My understanding is that the CBDC options the Fed are looking at will be a wholesale option for banks to use to give the US this capability for inter-bank settlements.

In NZ we are looking at CBDC as an actual digital currency (for consumers). But we are a long way off actually implementing anything and tbh I doubt it will ever get off the ground. There's just not the need for it.

[Brooke]

A couple of "fishing trawler" launched nukes from our coasts detonated a couple hundred miles in and up will make it all moot.

I judge this a very small probability.  But it is totally doable.  And it would wipe out electricity and all electrical devices in the US.  No pumps.  No cars.  No tractors.  No trains.  No water system.  No waste system.  No transportation.  Your travel radius is now what you can walk (or bike if you have one, or ride if you have a horse) in a day.  Farming would be restricted to what you can do by hand and horse, which isn't most farms.  It would take a year to get things going, because you'd have to string new electrical lines, get new huge transformers, new generators, new motors, new cars, new pumps, etc.  Other nations wouldn't be able to get enough food and water into the US.  Roads would be clogged with dead cars.  You are talking a need like the Berlin Airlift x10,000 x356 days.  90% of Americans would die. Ones in areas without access to water would die in a week or two.  The rest from starvation later.

Unlikely, but with dire consequences.  (i.e., (probability) * (magnitude of result) is not infinitesimal.)  So, I looked into what it would take to survive such a thing and found it was pretty cheap and easy to do.

A 5-gal bucket of beans (if sealed with oxygen absorber in mylar bag) will last 30+ years.  Same for a 5-gal bucket of rice.  Rice+beans makes a complete protein, so you can live off it for a long time.  (Wouldn't like it, but could do so.)  One 5-gal bucket is about one man-month of calories.  It costs about $20 to make one, and about 10 minutes of work.  Do it once.  Set for life.

So, do that to get whatever amount you want.  I did about 0.5 to 1 year worth for my family.

Also added a filter so I could get drinkable water out of ditch water.  Some guns.  A bucket of salt.  Gives me and my family a chance at living through such a thing in the unlikely event it happened.

Also put a backpack in my car and wife's car with enough stuff in it to travel on foot several days.  (Some water, food bars, knife, lighter, mylar poncho, rope, cash, flashlight, compass, etc.)

[CptTrips]

I judge this a very small probability.  But it is totally doable.  And it would wipe out electricity and all electrical devices in the US.  No pumps.  No cars.  No tractors.  No trains.  No water system.  No waste system.  No transportation.  Your travel radius is now what you can walk (or bike if you have one, or ride if you have a horse) in a day.  Farming would be restricted to what you can do by hand and horse, which isn't most farms.  It would take a year to get things going, because you'd have to string new electrical lines, get new huge transformers, new generators, new motors, new cars, new pumps, etc.  Other nations wouldn't be able to get enough food and water into the US.  Roads would be clogged with dead cars.  You are talking a need like the Berlin Airlift x10,000 x356 days.  90% of Americans would die. Ones in areas without access to water would die in a week or two.  The rest from starvation later.

Unlikely, but with dire consequences.  (i.e., (probability) * (magnitude of result) is not infinitesimal.)  So, I looked into what it would take to survive such a thing and found it was pretty cheap and easy to do.

A 5-gal bucket of beans (if sealed with oxygen absorber in mylar bag) will last 30+ years.  Same for a 5-gal bucket of rice.  Rice+beans makes a complete protein, so you can live off it for a long time.  (Wouldn't like it, but could do so.)  One 5-gal bucket is about one man-month of calories.  It costs about $20 to make one, and about 10 minutes of work.  Do it once.  Set for life.

So, do that to get whatever amount you want.  I did about 0.5 to 1 year worth for my family.

Also added a filter so I could get drinkable water out of ditch water.  Some guns.  A bucket of salt.  Gives me and my family a chance at living through such a thing in the unlikely event it happened.

Also put a backpack in my car and wife's car with enough stuff in it to travel on foot several days.  (Some water, food bars, knife, lighter, mylar poncho, rope, cash, flashlight, compass, etc.)

More likely would be another Carrington Event.  last time it happened it took out all the telegraph lines.  starting fires all over when they blew.  In our current tech civilization it would be Lord of the Flies.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_Event

Or when the Yellowstone Caldera blows again and takes out half of N. America.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_Caldera

Or just some random chunk of ice or rock flying through space decided to land here.

""On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero." - Tyler Durden

[rabbidrabbit]

I judge this a very small probability.  But it is totally doable.  And it would wipe out electricity and all electrical devices in the US.  No pumps.  No cars.  No tractors.  No trains.  No water system. 

Nearly as effective and far easier is to target the electrical grid with a number of sleeper teams.  Considering our current open border policy this is extremely easy.  It does not take a lot of training or skill to hit many transformers at the same time and since they are in short supply and the current wait on orders is 12-36 plus months, taking down the grid in large areas, especially in winter, would have a tremendous impact.

[Shuffler]

We can block off our neighborhood and protect it for some time. We have deep water and shallow water. We have two doctors and 2 triage nurses. Food sources, cattle, gardens. Gas, diesel, and propane generators. Some folks have multiple backup plans.... just on case.

[Eagler]

Power grid goes down and it's mad max in less than a week..those that have supplies and electricity are targeted first..

A good portion of society doesn't think theft is a crime now, where do you think their animalistic mindset goes when everything shuts down?

Our military will become the police overnight..

Ukraine,  hamas and China become distant worries immediately as our citizens show their true colors..

The US would fall in the end..along with the rest of the globe as our retaliation nuke strikes sees to that..

Eagler

[RUSH1]

I live in a small town in TX. The main population happens to be retirees, quite a few with significant money. One of the things that really stood out to me when we moved here was the vast number of banks and credit unions in town. I had been told by some folks that the reason was that a lot of the money people keep multiple accounts in multiple banks to stay within the FDIC insurance limits. I have no way to confirm or deny it but it seems somewhat plausible. As for me I do have a credit union account because my main bank has no branch or ATM inside of 45 miles. The CU also provides FAR more interest on savings accounts than my old (35+ year financial relationship) bank does.

 

The standard deposit insurance amount is $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank, for each account ownership category. The FDIC insures deposits that a person holds in one insured bank separately from any deposits that the person owns in another separately chartered insured bank.

Due to all of the money I've pillaged over the years from poor souls like Sparky, I've had to go this route.  Most of us evil Capitalists do.       

[Eagler]

The standard deposit insurance amount is $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank, for each account ownership category. The FDIC insures deposits that a person holds in one insured bank separately from any deposits that the person owns in another separately chartered insured bank.

Potato head and bird woman changed this earlier this year
.
Basically everything and anyone who they want to insure is regardless if it's fdic insured or not

Helps if you have donated to their cause

Eagler

[Brooke]

More likely would be another Carrington Event.

Yes.  And it would be bad.  But while the electrical lines would be ruined, electrical devices would survive (at least ones not connected to power grid, or with good-enough surge protector).  Cars, trains, planes, some generators, some pumps, etc. would survive it.

Or when the Yellowstone Caldera blows again and takes out half of N. America.

That's a bad one.  But it would take a bit for the entire area to be rendered unlivable.  A bunch of people would be able to flee.

Or just some random chunk of ice or rock flying through space decided to land here.

That is the worst die-off cause.

""On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero." - Tyler Durden

Yes.  But for me, if it's an easy thing to prepare for, I'm OK doing that.  Some things are outside my reasonable ability to prepare for, though, as you say.