Fiat dies in a week - what do you do?

[Defender]

Hypothetically, or maybe not, a reliable little birdie has told you that Friday evening will be the start of a bank holiday. You don't know what happens after that. Perhaps the banks just reopen after a few days or weeks. Perhaps there is a major devaluation or conversion to new fiat. Or even teotwawki.

Based on the cash and credit you have available what do you with it?

Some things to think about:

Credit cards will stop working then, if not before.
Cash will probably be useful until a currency change is announced but may become extremely devalued based on rumors.
Any mail orders not delivered by Friday may never be received. Do you spend extra for express shipping?
As more people realize something may happen, goods will become scarcer.
An all too easy response is to say 'buy gold & silver and use that to get other stuff later.' However, if the transport system breaks down, it may be a very long time till anything not already in your area shows up again. Also, who knows if orders will be honored if prices start skyrocketing.

For me, I'd probably max out my cc's and buy a back-up rifles and pistols along with some conversion parts & spare parts to make my little armory more effective. Another set of Berkey filters. Go to my local bulk food suppliers and get a few hundred pounds more of stuff. Buy better solar panels and associated gear. More rechargeable batteries. Oh, and a backup radio. And... ARGGHHH why did I even start this?

[Ironfield]

Hmm, an interesting concept to think about Defender. The main issue is how reliable the little birdie is. If his information is infallible and he is in the know about a revaluation or teotwawki then I would follow two different procedures:

i) Currency devaluation would mean withdrawing everything but bare minimum in my bank accounts and diversifying fiat into Euros, Swiss francs and Aussie dollars along with heading down to my local chap and loading up on gold to hedge my bets. Remaining local currency will be divided into two piles one for upcoming bills that need to be paid and second for purchasing necessities. Problem with the above that jumps out at me is my local currency the Dirham is linked to the US Dollar at an exchange rate of AED 3.765 to USD 1.00 and that Fridays are the holly day here and as such almost everything is shut in the mornings and financial institutes are shut. Hopefully I get a heads up sooner than Thursday.

ii) Totwawki well this then wanders off into the realm of highly speculative and with no solid definition of TOTWAWKI I would follow the above but close my accounts. Check my preps and stock up on a few other essentials and buy a few more bags of dog and cat food. Also head down to the marina and check the boats fuel levels and run the engines, make sure GPS and radio are fully functional with no issues etc. Once home bring in the two cars with the 4x4 last onto the drive. Thankfully I live in a freestanding villa with 8 foot walls around the property’s boundaries so that does give me comfort and with three large dogs I have an early warning system but lacking in the firearms department(local laws prohibit expatriates from owning guns) long range engagement, if things go to hell is out of the question.

Guess in scenario two it’s a case of hunker down and see how things play out.

Regarding your idea of maxing the credit cards I’d be hesitant. Even if it’s a currency devaluation the banks still have all your details and no doubt will fleece you for all you’re worth via overdrawn fees /late fees etc. TEOTWAWKI you might get away with it but then again some bustard out there in the great expanse of humanity will have probably compiled CC and banking details in some digital vault and when new government is installed they’ll then do you in financially.

-Ironfield

[Defender]

There is only 1 advantage that I can see for leaving any money in a bank if you know there is a bank holiday coming up. It would be if you thought they were going to roll out a new currency and current deposits would get preferential treatment in terms of conversion rate and/or limits.

For example: First $20,000 of checking/savings gets converted at rate of 5 old to one new. Physical cash you bring in gets converted at a 10 to 1 rate w/ $5,000 old currency the max per person.

The little birdie is whomever/whatever would convince each individual that this is happening in a week. And you just know the banks are closing. Anything beyond that Friday is just specualtion.

It's just an exercise for people to think about what they would do. Anything from drain the accounts and pile into the BOV to I'm already 100% prepped to Oh Crap! I better raid the grocery store.

[IHS]

What do I do? Nothing. I am already set for that scenario... ::)

[jetgraphics]

Technically speaking, "dollar bills" are not fiat, but worthless notes. Fiat has value. FRNs do not.

The outstanding obligations, denominated in dollars, but transacted in FRNs, are at risk, since the actual amount of FRNs is a magnitude SMALLER than the obligations owed.

The real problem: over 300 million voluntary human resources (slaves) pledged as collateral on the impossible to pay national debt.

Gawd hep uz awl if "someone" forecloses on the "contributors" (duly registered and enumerated).