Any one could hold someone's life savings.
Safes are washing up along the tsunami-battered coast, and police are trying to find their owners -- a unique problem in a country where many people, especially elderly ones, still stash their cash at home. According to one estimate, about $350 billion worth of yen doesn't circulate.
There's even a term for this hidden money in Japanese: tansu yokin. Or literally, wardrobe savings.
Should Americans trust their banks?
ReplyDeleteThe main savings bank in Japan after WW2 was the government owned Post office bank.
After the destruction of WW2 there was little confidence in Japanese private banking.
People were insecure After WW2 and saved as much as they could for security and old age at their local branch.
Interest paid by the Post Office Bank was seen as safe ,but was always set very, very low.
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The low interest rates paid in these savings meant it was cheaper for Japan to use these huge peoples savings as capital than to borrow higher interest capital from abroad.
This bank was the primary source of reconstruction capital after the war ,later the government passed over cheap long term capital to selected big companies that promised to develop export industries.
This was sort of like ‘socialist” central planning system for capitalists and the “secret” of the success of the fast development of the Japanese export industry . Cheaper than world rate low interest capital supply ,allowed easy competition with some other countries that had a higher cost when borrowing ,to invest in their own manufacturing industries.
After the collapse of the Japanese property and share bubbles the solvency of many big banks is questionable. They only survive and are financed by interest free handout money loans from Government .A bit like American banks.
As the interest paid on savings accounts is now non-existent or negative when inflation is taken into account in Japan, there is no longer any point in depositing cash in savings banks . Japanese Pensioners and others dodging the tax man ,may like to hide the real extent of their savings , by keeping cash and a little precious metals in a safe at home.
The American government does not have a government owned PO savings bank or even “victory bonds" as a way of subsidizing its industries like Japan .
But, prefers to just bail its banks out from time to time by socializing the finance sectors losses ,as it did in the 90s in the savings and loans crisis and now with TARP bailouts.
Thereby creating a national debt dividend opportunity by the sale of all future government revenues for the benefit of treasury shareholders. Treasury bonds may even be purchased by the banksters using interest free money from the Fed -a free ride !
This is the American “free” enterprise system for Ponzi schemers like the bankrupt Wall St banksters.
Many Americans are living in a fantasy world where ‘homeland security” and wars against the Third World ensures their security and cheap oil too!
A world where their central bank counterfeits money wholesale by the $ trillions
to support government deficit spending and interest free money handouts for banksters to prop the share and property markets is an everyday reality called ‘recovery” !
And they still believe their money is OK in the “safe banks even when they have seen that the gamblers only just recently went belly up !
Because of government guarantees of a strong dollar through money printing!!
But as we saw with the TARP bailouts this can involve $ trillions and might be a little inflationary?
So, the future value of the strong US dollar cannot now be trusted and the dollar hegemony is dying.
Why would the banksters want to pay you interest on deposits /loans to the banks in US savings accounts when interest free money can be got at the Fed ?
So, now the interest incomes held in US savings accounts, after considering inflation , are also negative just like in Japan.
Americans too should also consider a low cost safe as a store of precious metals ,as one way to try and preserve the value of their savings ,as the banks are now insolvent and only surviving on life support of interest free government money.
P.S.
While the US government does not have a post Office Bank money box full of low interest peoples savings to tap into, some suspect that the US government is now eying off 401K savings as a substitute money supply box.
^^wow what a bigoted git
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