Daily Briefing For Friday, October 18, 2013

Note: I'm experimenting with the use of a bigger font for the blog.  For whatever reason, the font size in the drafting is much larger than when it's published.  Let me know what you think of the larger font size in the comment section below.

Cash Money.  Or More Like Crash Money.

The recent announcement by Chase Bank has some preparedness commentators/doom porn purveyors speculating as to what we should expect in the future regarding the stability of the financial system.  Here's one take on what it all means.  From the article:

This is nothing short of a capital control, which is an economic strategy designed to limit the transfer of money. It is a strategy implemented only during times of economic or financial distress, most often as a precursor to wealth seizures by the state.

Be warned, Chase bank is the first of likely many banks to begin the lock-down of the financial wealth of private individuals in the United States of America.

The new restrictions are particularly ironic because JP Morgan Chase (along with other large banking conglomerates) is a primary shareholder, and thus owner, of the Federal Reserve, which has been responsible for sending trillions of freshly printed dollars outside of the country over the last several years.

There is absolutely no legitimate reason for why one of the world’s biggest banks just restricted the outward flow of cash from domestic businesses to their international contacts, especially considering that we are repeatedly told we live in a globalized world where we need to learn to work with our foreign partners.

It makes no sense.

Unless, of course, you stop to consider that the United States is and has been on the brink of collapse, literally, for nearly a decade. This was first confirmed in January of 2011 in a letter to Congress by then Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner when he spoke of the U.S. debt ceiling.

Just last weekend, the EBT system went down for nearly a day.  On Wednesday, we came within hours of a possible default on our national debt.  We've postponed the risk of that happening again until early 2014, barring another agreement to kick the can further down the road.

I don't know the probability of a major disruption in the banking system.  But perils far less severe, such as power outages and severe weather, can prevent us from accessing our funds at the bank.  Make plans to be able to buy things without relying on your local ATM or credit card.


Fellowship Among Believers

Back during Texas' frontier days, travelers commonly found presidios dotting the landscape.  These structures provided security from a variety of threats facing the pioneers struggling to make a living in their new country. 

There's much discussion in the preparedness community as to whether there's a market for planned developments  - modern day presidios of sorts - designed to be self sustaining.  Think about it:  a developer designs a community with its own water supply, security features, energy efficient housing with alternative energy features built in, and peril resistant construction. 

Would something like this work?  My concerns include:

1. Your hood just became a high value target.  Thugs, ne'er-do-wells, Call of Duty veterans and everyone in between will know your neighborhood houses some really cool stuff; being the baddest kid on their cul de sac means taking over yours.  Are you inviting trouble by living in a development that markets itself as a grid down oasis?
2. Just because you're a nice person and team player doesn't mean the family next door to you is like minded.  The Mormons do a fantastic job with this.  That's because they adhere to a common doctrine that permeates every aspect of their lives.  Unless there's a vetting process which allows existing residents to vote new members in (much like a Dallas area hunting and fishing club), I'm not sure how you get the right kind of people.  And by "right kind of people," I mean those who are committed to be team players and who will help the entire community during times of crisis, rather than hole up in their own McBunker and free ride on their neighbors' efforts.
3. "My HOA dues are going to pay for WHAT?"  The HOA meetings in places like this (and I think a HOA would be mandatory, given the development's purpose) would be surreal to outsiders.  To those of us who are into this sort of thing, it would be a meeting of kindred spirits.  Yet this cause tends to attract a lot of Type A personalities, and I could see a lot of debate between those who just wanted to live in a safe, self sustaining community and those who buy the proverbial Kool Aid by the barrel. 

In the end, I think you have to do this on a membership basis.  If you aren't vetting folks somehow as they come in, I think you are asking for a lot of headaches in this type of community.

(Thanks to Mark for input into this discussion.)