Feds changing your access to your safety deposit box in case of panic run.

[TalkingDog]

Has anybody here heard anything about this or should I go get the tinfoil?

http://urbansurvival.com/week.htm

There is no direct link, the story is about 1/2 way down the page.

"First things first: I have had a couple of reports from readers about supposed changes to access to safety deposit boxes and what federal officials have planned as actions in the event of a market run/panic/run on banks/ and so forth. One reader reports running into less-than-cooperative bankers when the reader removed personal items from a safe deposit box. A different reader reported that mysteriously, because the box hadn't been opened in a while, that the keys had been changed without advising the customer."

[windy252]

1. I've heard a few rumors suggesting this,

but I haven't been able to confirm it.

[babylonsister]

2. Dare I ask...

is this even legal?:hide:

[windy252]

4. You act as if that matters

I wish I didn't have to say that.

[xray s]

3. They also are planning a full lock down of all public toilets

It's their effort to stop leaks.

[Swamp Rat]

8. Too late!

Pssssss! :D

:D

[Minnesota Libra]

9. Remember 1929?? Think these idiots didn't learn something? nt

[Art_from_Ark]

28. Sure they learned something

Even during a Great Depression, "The (super-)rich get richer, and the poor get poorer."

[joneschick]

5. Snopes says "undetermined"

http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/safedeposit.asp

I work for a bank, but I have nothing to do with safe deposit stuff. I think I will be ke.eping my ears open

[TalkingDog]

6. I actually heard about it from an investor friend of mine over lunch

a few days ago. He wasn't extremely clear and we had 2 other people at the table, so the comment went by.

I didn't think anything about it till I ran across this.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[TalkingDog]

10. Interesting. Thanks for the link.

Our safety deposit box is under our stairs. A string of 1950's era pearls from England are about the most valuable thing in it. Passports, papers and so on.

Hmmm....what an interesting rumour.

[The Backlash Cometh]

26. I know. What's in a safety deposit box that will affect the economy?

Nothing. It's full of personal jewerly and paper. What you really fear is people going to the bank to close their savings and checking accounts.

[DemInDistress]

35. I was searching my brain for that link and wow!! there it is...

we thank you..

[redacted]

11. Think abt it: How would the bank or gov't benefit from denying you

access to your safety deposit box in the event of some kind of "run" on financial institutions.

It won't.
So why would they do it.

I say tinfoil hat.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

13. gold. valuables. certain papers

lots of reasons.

Still not confirmed, but considering the things they have done that we DO know about...

[redacted]

16. Ok great. So now the gov't has your gold. How is it that going to

help the government. The government doesn't need your gold -- it can print money.

A 'run' on the bank is abt withdrawing deposits.

Which if everyone did it would put the bank in a bad place, because they loan that money out.

What is in your safety deposit box is beside the point.

More likely would be that the gov would allow you to have the gold, and then not allow you to sell it. Just like they stop trading stocks during national disasters. Which I might add, is good policy.

[salin]

18. While I think the scenarioi is highly unlikely - the risk for the govt

of just printing more money - is extreme deflation. Suddenly the value of the currently is so low that one has to have a huge amount of currency to pay for even basic goods. Has happened a number of times in different areas of the world in the past century.

[redacted]

20. Agreed. My point is that the gov't is really going the benefit from

keeping your goldin the bank, unless the gov't planned on stealing your gold.

If we are in such bad shape that the gov't wants to steal your gold -- it's just not going to matter.

[Art_from_Ark]

29. Not extreme deflation-- just the opposite

Printing unlimited amounts of unbacked money leads to extreme inflation-- just look at Brazil, Argentina, 1990's Serbia, Weimar Republic Germany, to name a few. Deflation can occur when there is too little money in circulation.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

21. If the dollar crashes completely, it will be worth less than toilet paper

what good would printing more do?

[Art_from_Ark]

30. In that case, they would do what every other inflation-ravaged country

has done-- introduce a "new dollar" revalued at say, 100 or 1000 times the value of the "old dollar"

[moodforaday]

34. It helps prop up appearances

that nothing untowards is happening.

If you are willing to go an extra mile here and assume a full-scale propaganda war against the population, then one reason is pretty clear. If the gvt can ensure that people do not remove valuables from banks, then the gvt can officially claim that deposits are secure, that there has been no run on banks, and therefore there is nothing to worry about. This is straight 1984, but this type of manipulation was indeed common in Soviet bloc countries.

Also, I'm no economist, but you cannot just print money at will without devaluing your currency. OTOH, if you can show an ounce of gold for every N dollars fresh off the print, that's another matter.

[BattyDem]

15. Exactly. The money and/or valuables in a safety deposit box

are NOT in the "system" and therefore, removing them from the box has no effect on financial institutions. Why would the government care? :shrug:

[Inland]

12. This doesn't make any sense at all.

A "run on the bank" is a withdrawal of deposits, not emptying a safe deposit box. I can't imagine any ill that's fixed by keeping people from safety deposit boxes.

[redacted]

14. Exactly. NT

[A HERETIC I AM]

25. Because a run on a bank threatens PAPER money......

and therefore the concept that the paper money is worth "X". Safe deposit boxes in many if not most cases contain tangible wealth: Coins, bullion, gems, bearer instruments, etc.

The entire idea holding up the value of a currency is that the currency is agreed to have intrinsic value. But paper money is, after all, paper. Real intrinsic value is based on what the money represents. In the case of US dollars, it is "The full faith and credit of the United States of America". If that faith and credit is threatened - take for example if OPEC decided tomorrow to trade in only Euros and no longer Dollars or China decided to ask for the yield on all those T-Bills they own TOMORROW, then the value of the currency is undermined. Currency values have fluctuated, risen and declined hundreds of times in history. To think the US Dollar is immune ignores that history.

Tangible wealth would be the first thing a currency in free fall would want to attach itself to. Since we are no longer on the gold standard and even though the US has substantial gold reserves, the currency would be at risk if all of the "Federal reserve notes" were called in to remit their tangible value.

In other words, if everyone asked the government to give them the value of their paper money in tangible wealth - gold, for example, the Treasury simply couldn't do it. The truth is, the real value of your dollars is tied to debt. Inextricably, unfortunately.

Any economist worth his salt would say this is a delicate and dangerous situation.

[Nite Owl]

17. Gold?

Didn't they ban owning gold during the depression?

[redacted]

19. Yes but money was based on a Gold Standard then. Now it's not.

BTW, that brilliant move of banning gold during the depression is one of the factors that made it the "great depression" rather than -- "the really crappy recession"

[Art_from_Ark]

31. Technically, the US withdrew from the Gold Standard in 1934

although vestiges remained until Nixon eliminated them completely in 1971, the same year the last bit of silver was removed from American coinage.

[Art_from_Ark]

32. One more thing-- the worst years of the Great Depression are generally

considered to be the years 1930, 31, 32, and 33-- when gold was still circulating as money. The tight connection of the money supply to gold severely restricted the amount of money in circulation.

[Art_from_Ark]

27. They banned owning gold bullion, but not gold coins

Citizens were still allowed to keep gold coins

[SPKrazy]

22. My Guess Is It Is BS

the likelihood of thousands of bank employees keeping something like this quiet?

no way

[hedgehog]

23. What's interesting is that this rumor is out there

It's an indicator of what people are worrying about.

[stepnw1f]

24. Only If They are Stupid

"Who knows....!?" - Donald Dumbsfailed

[WoodrowFan]

33. probably fake.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/safedeposit.asp