A Warning Call

In a quietly circulated memo released this morning to it's member banks, (Made available by the Wall Street Journal.) the FDIC (The government organization that supposedly insures our bank accounts up to a limit of $100,000.) , now is requiring effective August 18, that large banks (Banks with $2 billion in deposits or $20 billion in assets.) to immediately standardize information provided to the FDIC and to immediately add systems that can automatically place holds on "very large accounts".

Read between the lines - our government is setting up a quick and easy mechanism (Such as an email blast to the banks?) to stop you from withdrawing your money from your bank. Wonder why they might want to do that?

Given that us boomers are supposed to have at least $3 million for a decent retirement, (Oh well, I'm not in that category.) I only have a couple of accounts to worry about. I suggest you consider your situation if your funds are suddenly "on hold", the Fed's term for "you ain't gonna get it until we're good and ready!)

Now, I wonder under what circumstances would our friends in Washington issue this freeze of our accounts order? Possibly a default on the Federal $9 TRILLION dollar debt?

BTW, I barley survived the great savings and loan crisis when all of my accounts were frozen by the geniuses in Washington, even though I did nothing wrong, and my S&L was totally solvent. It took the feds more than 100 days to get around to releasing a couple of my accounts, and by then my creditors were working on repossessing my cars, foreclosing on my home and properties, and destroying my credit score. This was further complicated even though I was earning a nice living, my paychecks were being direct deposited into accounts that I could not access, and it took more than two months to get this fixed.

Now, I'm not saying that we should run out and take the cash and bury it in the back yard. But, keeping a tidy sum and some Krugerrands under the mattress might not be a bad idea.

Oh, one more thing. The Feds include access to safe deposit boxes in this instruction. Sorry, those items get frozen too.

Caveat Emptor.

The Best Money Guy