Tuesday, June 12, 2018

pulling the banker plug


PULLING THE BANKER PLUG
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For a long time now I’ve been more nervous than a cat in a room full of rocking chairs over having money in the bank.  I had no problem closing my bank account a well in advance of Y2K, but that was also a gentler and simpler time when I didn’t have my paycheck deposited electronically ( Amazon used to charge you something like $10 to mail you a check rather than direct deposit your commission.  They might not even offer the check anymore ).  I understand there are options such as debit cards, but you save no money as opposed to a regular bank account.  And I prefer a local teller to calling a customer representative ( since the costs are the same, if not cheaper ).

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Being a bit extreme in my frugalness, I had avoided the monthly checking fee by keeping my balance at $1500.  But that was making me rather worried and panicked.  I knew the banking system would go overnight, without warning.  Too much money in the bank is a disaster invitation.  I can easily lose $100.  Not so $1500 ( a good part of my savings ).  I talked myself into leaving the money there by looking at what it would cost yearly in fees ( $108 ).  And hell, I even KNEW I was being penny wise and pound foolish. 

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I dither no longer.  It is time to pull the plug on my excessive bank savings.  I’ve justified it for a year, and the whole time I knew the excuses were lame.  No, I don’t want ALL my money in a buried cache.  But I also don’t want ALL my money to be “disappeared” by the greedy swine sodomizers.  More saved cash makes me nervous.  Any bank saving beyond a cushion ( my personal number is $100 ) makes me nervous.  I refuse to call beans or bullets “savings”, as you won’t be able to liquidate it, at all.  Precious metals make me nervous because if outlawed you’ll take a huge haircut liquidating them on the black market.

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So, I needed to pick the Least Evil savings vehicle.  Reluctantly I’m going with silver.  Why the reluctance?  I know that industrial silver mining is on its last legs.  When the banks go, funding for mining dries up ( most pure silver mines are running out relatively soon and most silver-as-byproduct mines are either overexposed to financial shenanigans or will lose credit to operate or will see a global industrial severe contraction negating demand for their primary ores ).  Silver, right now, is severely under priced.  I don’t side with the precious metal drones in their wild claims such as $10k gold and $500 silver ( although possible ), but I do think even if there is zero inflation silvers priced is manipulated down by the central banks.

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Silver will always protect you against inflation, but buying now does give you an artificially low price and does insure against future supply disruption.  I do view precious metals as way over rated by preppers.  Its main function is to transfer wealth to the other side of the collapse.  Asking it to perform miracles DURING a collapse is silly.  Which is kind of what I am doing here, but the difference is I’m only expecting it to serve in a economic collapse, not a social or civilization collapse.  It is only good in a semi-functioning economy, not a true collapse.

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I need savings, to substitute for a lack of a paycheck or any credit cards.  Any way I save, I am forced to embrace some kind of Suck.  This is ONLY picking the less evil, not eliminating it.  Which I think most preppers fail to appreciate ( including myself at times ).  We are already at the point in time where there are no more great choices.  The merely good choices are far and few between.  Mostly it is just choosing the less evil choices. 

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You can spend $200 on a pair of boots.  Or $50.  Both are crap.  The $200 pair will last much longer, but only in relation to cheaper boots made today.  Compared to yesterday’s boots, it is still crap.  I just saw an ad for $60 boots from Doc Martin.  They were vinyl.  What used to cost me $20 at Payless which lasted me years and years of hard use, now cost three times that amount and I can Gott Damn Guarantee you that they don’t last as long, not even for that brand name.  This is picking the lesser evil.  It isn’t a great choice nor even a good choice.  It is the choices we are left with.  The same with saving money.  No good choices left.

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As I said, this has been on my mind for some time.  What finally made me act more sanely?  To be honest, it was the new Jim Willie Golden Jackass article ( June 5, 2018 ) on Deutsche Bank.  Normally, his articles are just “spice” to me.  Doomer music for the background.  I don’t take his specifics seriously, most of the time, since he pretty much just repeats on a loop.  PetroDollar dying, new gold currency, etcetera.  Those are a given, but over the years they lose their impact when every event is one thing closer to proving his point.  I do the same thing, don’t get me wrong.  But at least I keep warning you that while I’m always right my sense of timing blows.

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Golden Jackass does nothing wrong.  Some might look at him as a Doom Porn Star, but I like his style and message.  He is one of the few not pimping for the imperial dollar, a rare breed amongst Yuppie Survival Scum.  I just don’t normally give in to his monthly panics.  Yet this time I did.  I think it was because of the OTHER background noise on the economy ( of which there is a butt ton ).  I keep saying “I got me a bad feeling on this one”, I know.  And yet it just keeps getting worse. 

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I guess I was just looking at it from conformational bias.  I KNEW the derivatives bubble is past due to implode.  So when Jim ( I give an automatic fifty percent increase in credibility to anyone named James.  Sorry, I know it is biased.  I don’t care.  Suck it ) told me What I Already Knew, I sold myself on my fears and paranoia.  Then, AFTER I made up my mind on this, I read over on The Burning Platform that On This Day In History FDR outlawed gold.  Well, damn, dude!  Is that a sign or what?  I’m placing my first order today ( I won’t put in one giant order.  Baby steps ). 

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I could be making a mistake.  I could be a genius.  Hell, I don’t know.  I do know this should help me sleep better at night.  This is the only metric I have for Prepping Decisions.
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Addendum: I bought from two companies.  www.goldenstatemint.com who had the cheaper price and mints their own ( supposedly negating any chance of Chinese counterfeit ), and www.apmex.com who were a quarter more per ounce but shipped like that hour ( the other took two days ).  Golden was $18.86 an ounce on $16.80 spot price, all inclusive with three day shipping with signature required.  Apmex was $19.10.  Golden was delivered in six days from order, including the weekend, with the other four days ( three day shipping, but there was Sunday adding an extra day ).  I bought four times as much from Apmex, so you are just paying extra for much faster service.  If you are buying much smaller amounts, these companies might not be so cheap.  You'd have to shop around if you did like one coin at a time.  And, I'm happy to report, all the coins were the Bison and Indian rounds, so that was cool.  Apmex had some official mint coins ( such as the Perth kangaroo coins ) that were about the same price, so if you only want "official" coins, they have that advantage.  Both companies seemed solid.

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21 comments:

  1. Hey Jim, as for cheap bank accounts, check for a credit union. A local one here only requires a 5 dollar account balance in the checking to have no monthly charge. I keep it open just to be able to deposit checks from my side work. once they clear I take it out.

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    1. The one here wants $500. Guess they are popular enough they don't need to try.

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  2. But, but, but, you can't eat silver! Sure you can, kind of. You should have a silver coin in each of your water storage containers, including canteens in your emergency bag. The pioneers kept silver coins in their water supply and in their milk. The silver coin stopped bacterial growth in the water and extended the shelf life of the milk (remember no modern equivalent of refrigeration). We know from scientific studies that silver can self-sterilize in as little as six minutes depending on what disease/bacteria is placed on it. I have an upcoming experiment planned for the next time I have a wound in a convenient location. I plan on NOT cleaning the wound (unless it's got embedded dirt/gravel) and merely placing a silver coin on it and tape it down as a bandaid. It should heal nicely since it kills everything.
    Peace out

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    1. I've heard the same good things about silver and healing.

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  3. Jim, another good article but I must throw in my two cents worth. Most of your minions should not be following your advice on this one because they are not ready. Food. Number one will always be food. It is impossible to have too much therefore most of us do not have enough. Any “extra” money you have should therefore go to food storage. When the SHTF no one will trade you food for silver. Or anything else. Next comes shelter (also because you need a place to keep your food storage) and then comes a way to protect it all. In the unlikely event you have “enough” food, shelter and protection then you may fall for the allure of PMs. Don’t kid yourself, it is an allure and many of us fall for it. Myself included. If you do, my suggestion is to buy it for cash from a seller you can trust like a coin dealer or pawn shop with a fixed business location. If you order over the net there will be a record of the sale and purchaser. Confiscation of PMs is not unknown in this country. I buy only silver dimes because they are a known quantity of silver and their small size tends to make it less likely to be counterfeited. Also, their small size makes them more useful for trading. They have a published value that will aid in negotiating with the dealer.
    Your advice regarding food is what sets you apart from the survival riff raff and I felt I should remind you. That and junk land and no semis. Puts you way above the rest. Thanks for all you do.

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    1. I have another article on silver in a day or two, then I have one on food as priority, just as you outline above. I think that is the article I chastise folks for not taking pocket change and filling up salvaged two liter bottles ( about fifty cents and a soda bottle gets you two days of food ). It is best to view the articles as a continuation rather than stand alones. I'm trying to cover everything now, rather than just the core ideas. This includes niche topics like "you shouldn't own a semi, but if you do..." or "you shouldn't own silver, but if your food situation is secure...". I'm trying to branch up. But I also always return to the core ideas.

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    2. "Food is first, Always" is a Bison quote ;-)

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    3. Food first, but there is a quantity of food that is enough (you can't find space for it, or 7 years of wheat-every-day for your tribe of 20 if blessed with a 2000 square foot below-grade basement). As far as storing things in-general goes, I want a diversified stockpile to give me a better-than-nothing (or praise-his-hair!, good-enough) ability to use tools/run&hide/fight/trade. Small-denomination silver (.999 pure ounce or 90% dimes/quarters) is part of this, as is a few fractional-ounce gold coins (tenth ounce/10 or 20 Francs/UK Sovereign). I'm not rich enough to worry about the weight of rolls of gold ounces or 50Peso coins in my pack. Don't over-invest in pm's, just like being cautious of over-buying dozens of AR-15's when ammo/mags may be the shortage.
      pdxr13

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    4. Dozens of AR's-ha! If that is you, say hi to Rawles for me, from your adjacent mountain top concrete castle.

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  4. After food, shelter/clothes/gear, weapons ammo, then do a splitting of dying dollars into silver or 1/10th gold as more of a longer view strategic plan. When total economic collapse sets in, (it will take a while as people will still trade in what they know for a while) and dollars are repudiated or new warlords or regimes have own currency or bartering systems. It is going to be more difficult to be totally de-linked from banking/financial system as a full on cashless system/mark of the beast participation requirements will keep most connected to the borg. Outliers who want freedom? or are sleeping rough outdoors will probably be scooped up by a.i. robots and repurposed psycopaths and interned or fed to wood chippers.

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    1. Don't forget junk land! I'd much rather have a decent piece of junk land than fifty ounces of silver. Well, I did both, turning excess cash into land and silver, but for the prepper that has more financial obligations that I...I don't worry too much about the mark of the beast. Too many folks are grey economy, distrustful, etc.

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  5. For me, Silver has been a good way to set aside money over the years.
    It is private, physically under your control, harder to spend on a whim than cash, and has the potential for gain unlike dollars which are guaranteed to constantly lose value.
    I don't agree that it comes dead last on the doom shopping list.
    Precious metals are like any other item accumulated for an uncertain future.
    Guns, of course, get some. You might never need to fire a single shot. Or your battle rifle may be the only thing that carries you and your family through the apocalypse.
    Stored food: yes, safe bet you will need food every day. But will you have to tap your storage before you die (if you aren't already eating it to rotate). Who knows. You may be able to normally purchase (or produce) a great diet for decades to come. Or maybe a month from now, most of the population will be dining on one another. And your food storage saves you.
    My point is balance is useful in preps and no one know for sure how things will shake out. To me silver is part of that balance.
    I agree with James and others that an economic meltdown and mass impoverishing is one of the most likely scenarios we face in the short term. Silver is outside of the digital economic system.
    I have read many anecdotal stories in histories of various hard times where a silver or gold coin at the right place and time saved lives and preserved freedom.
    On the 90% "junk" silver issue, I own some but will probably stick with mainly 1 ounce Eagles, Maples, or Aussie mint issues for silver.
    90% Washington quarters or Roosevelt dimes look like coins still in circulation. I want something different looking. Years ago I purchased Mercury dimes, Franklin halves and Standing Liberty quarters for their obvious difference to current designs (this was $5 to $7 silver days). Too collecty today.
    There are some newly minted 1/10th ounce and 1/2 ounce coins but I feel the premium is too high.
    Multi-ounce (or multi-gram) bars are verboten according to most survivalist lore. But at a certain point makes sense as the price per ounce is less, you've got the smaller sizes squared away, and your goal is wealth transfer to the other side. Or maybe the bars could serve to close the deal on a big purchase you could never make during normal times: a productive ranch or farm, a dowry for a hot bride with excellent genetics, whatever.
    S

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    1. The movie Stone did, "Salvador"? With James Woods. He had a hollowed out heel on a pair of boots for a gold coin that saved his life from soldiers ( if I recall correctly-been a minimum of twenty years since I watched it ). It doesn't literally translate to the future, but a good anecdotal cautionary tale. Now that I think about it, was that Ed Harris as the sniper with the FN-FAL?

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  6. I don't know if it's just that I'm paying attention (you know, when you're looking for a lawn mower all of a sudden all the mower shops "appear") but a lot of people are lamenting the noticeable drop in quality / durability of various things.

    When I was a young fellow, a guy into RC aircraft showed me a motor he had that was 20 odd years old. He said he'd never part with it because it was built to last "unlike the rubbish they make today".

    On the firearms front in Dingoland - Scroll down to the bottom (I can't link to the specific rifle). Some smart cookies have gotten around the semi-auto restrictions. Savage rimfire A22 has been converted to a "lever release".

    https://www.cleaverfirearms.com/Products.aspx?Category=Rifles&Brand=55

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    1. With $90 magazines, I don't know if I'd need a "lever release" rifle. Good gravy. Of course, some folks buy $12,000 ATV's, so what's a $100 magazine or two between friends?

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  7. Anybody know of an inexpensive way to test silver to make sure it's real, or how pure it is?

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    1. https://www.silver.com/fake-silver-gold-testing/
      There is the magnet test, which seems the most feasible, but they list others.

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    2. Volume vs weight is one way.

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    3. First test I use is a magnet. Some will slow it down a little as you move over it like a Peace or Morgan dollar. I use a very strong neo magnet. Then weight and calipers to check for size. Many fakes are silver plated copper and copper will be bigger or thicker to get the correct size. Then there is test acid which is less than $5 for 50 - 100 tests. Even on pure .999 silver it will leave a discolored area, so be aware of that before you test.

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  8. Good shoes would be a good investment in these times. When things go tits up, quality footwear that fits YOUR FEET will be a definite asset. Yeah, scavenging the dead might yield some that fit, but fit well - that's luxury man. Seriously - find some good boots that work for you. In the long run (see what I did there ?), it is worth it.

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    1. I could spend the rest of my life and savings trying to find a decent pair of boots. All those that report "great" really mean "great compared to the rest of the trash". I haven't heard one report on any boots as good as they used to be before the 08 crash.

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