People can still get money out of ATMs up to the limit. And presumably you can still write checks and IOUs, though everyone will need to wait to cash them until the banks open.
Not that it isn’t hurrendously stupid. Just pointing out that Cyprus probably won’t go totally Mad Max if the banks don’t open till Thursday.
Do the Euros have gold bugs like we have in the US? I know several people who do not keep cash investments, they move their money to gold coins ASAP.
I would consider setting up a coin shop / gold shop if I could once the runs start.
There’s no mainstream pro-Euro group in the UK any more, certainly not with a voice in the main parties. For all his faults, let’s give a moment of thanks to Gordon Brown.
Yes, there are stupid people here too.
The way things are going, are you so sure they’re stupid?
Stupid? We have bank runs, risk of inflation (the easiest way to get rid of debt is to inflate our way out of it - it screws a lot of people, but it effectively eliminates a lot of older debt), etc.
I am not a gold bug (my investments are primarily stocks), but I do have gold - and it has performed beautifully. I don’t get the “stupid” comment, especially in this thread.
“Especially in this thread”? Does anyone interpret the events discussed in this thread as “proof” that the gold standard is better?
Anyway, here are some claims I saw made in another forum (no idea as to their validity):
Like I said, I don’t know how accurate these assertions are, but I question whether #2 is a strong enough reason to basically trade one form of catastrophe for another.
Foreign money was used against excessive debt. The government has to access money from it’s citizens to pay the money owed. Call the government assessment whatever you want.
Gold does not pay a dividend income. Gold does not have the state-backed guarantees of Treasury bonds or gilts. It’s a commodity, albeit with a shiny sheen. No doubt plenty people have made money out of trading in gold recently, witness the many “we buy your dead mother’s jewellery for CASH” businesses that have sprung up. If you are going to buy metal, may I suggest copper? 
What a stupid idea. If they tried that nonsense in the U.S, I’d pull my money and never, ever open a bank account again. Is there any chance this could ever happen to the U.S banking system? This shit has me spooked.
Technically, anything could happen, really. It’s a great big universe. Likely to happen? That’s another question entirely. But if the post I quoted in my last post is true, if things get that desperate that the proposal sounds like even anything close to a remotely good idea, then we’re fucked anyway.
You have a lot of company in Europe.
But I don’t think there is much chance of this in the USA. I believe this is happening in Cyprus so as to get a bailout from the EU, because they have so much foreign debt. Since most of the US national debt is held by US citizens, I don’t see any external agency pressuring us to do something like this.
ETA -
[QUOTE=Leaper]
if things get that desperate that the proposal sounds like even anything close to a remotely good idea, then we’re fucked anyway.
[/QUOTE]
Entirely correct.
Regards,
Shodan
Ironic in the context of this thread.
Anything can happen, sure. But countries that control their own currency have other ways to manage these problems, and the chances of this happening in the US are as low as they get.
That said, pulling money out of bank accounts is not the only way to reduce buying power. Messing with the money supply, exchange rate and interest rate can cause a much larger impact than this. This is an unusual move, but not some kind of unique horror. No banking system is 100% safe, and indeed much of the world deals with unstable banking systems and the fallout from that.
But anyway, if the US banking system is failing on that level, you are going to have much bigger problems in your life than losing a bit of your savings.
Well, there’s a slight difference between trading gold as commodity vs. gold standard; apples and apples orchard kind of difference.
Agreed - I used gold bug more for those who would rather have coins in a safe than cash in a deposit account. That was a mistake on my part, since I was not referring to gold bugs like Steve Forbes et al.
That was why I mentioned the coin shops - places where you can take your cash you just pulled out of the bank and convert it to gold coins that you can sell again somewhere else.
With interest rates so low - you are insane to keep large amounts of cash in a bank account in my opinion.
True enough 
Thing is, the ATMS have already been drained of cash. And what if the person you need to pay isn’t accepting checks or IOUs?
I agree, there’s essentially zero chance of this ever happening in the US. (Would it be fair to call the devaluation of the dollar under FDR similar?) Anyway, what worries me is that this will be the one “one-time” crisis too far for the Eurozone and most of the EU tanks. I don’t know if non-Eurozone countries are strong enough to take a Eurozone recession and I’m not sure if the US could really take a Eurozone collapse. How much exposure do we really have to this?
It’s crazy moves like this that will lead to the total collapse of the Euro IMHO.
Here’s the Guardian’s liveblog of the first day’s reactions