I see an economic diasater coming...

[the_big_m_in_ok]

    There is nothing that can reassure markets when three Irish banks are sitting on over 1.5 trillion euros in bad debt. (Spanish banks are sitting on over three times that). There is nothing reassuring when, just after receiving a massive bailout, the Greek government revised their growth figures downwards and their debt figures upwards again. There is nothing reassuring when ask the average man or woman on the street in Dublin, "What do you think will happen?" and they say, "We'll take the money then we'll default. What's the worst that could happen? They'd drain the German and French treasuries to protect the euro".

Yes!  That's the worst that can happen!  The Germans are already complaining that they're, "Not swimming in money."

Precisely.  This can't go on for a great deal longer.  Europeans are become scared of the future, I think.  Rightly so.  This is a bad situation all around.

Institutional investors will do what they always do - take the money and run to a safe haven.
    It's fine in hindsight to say "We never should have let countries like Greece and Ireland join the euro - should have known they would abuse their privileges" but the boat has already left the dock.
    The best thing anybody can do is let those banks fail, and let those other banks with so much money invested in the (always risky) Irish banks fail, too. Write off what you can, let the chips fall where they may. What you'll end up with are solvent, reliable banking institutions like the Cooperative Bank, instead of the unreliable and totally irresponsible Anglo Irish, Allied Irish, Northern Rock and RBS, and a return to a banking system which existed for hundreds of years which didn't need government regulation because they didn't make loans to people or other institutions who could not possibly repay them.

Many years ago, in high school, a 'nerd' I hung around with intimated to me that the present crisis(today) was unavoidable and would cause the 'whole house of cards to collapse', as he put it.  Why, there's more that 100 times the money in circulation now than in 1929.  No one who even lives to be 10,000 years old will be able to legally pay of the debts incurred before---and at---the collapse.  Banks probably won't be around to be a factor at that time.  They'll be toast by then.

Banks which existed to hold and protect their investors' money, not gamble it on subprime mortgages in Ireland, Spain and (mainly) the U.S.

To be cynical and truthful, a financial whistleblower wrote a book exposing an insider's view of Wall Street and then testified to Congress.  The data informant he named in testimony suffered a fatal car accident the next day.

Wonder why?

--Lee

[triffid]

On top of it all you have to worry about ATM theft.   http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/111407/atm-fraud-gets-even-more-brazen   triffid

[triffid]

One thing to do is to cover the keypad with your hand so no camera can see your PIN.


then here is a post from another reader:In Malaysia, crooks tap your shoulder as you're standing in front of the ATM waiting for your money. Modus Operandi is simple, they tap your shoulder, you turn and they tell you that you dropped some money. You look down and see some notes; this is the time they take out your card and replace it with a dummy card. You can't tell coz both cards don't have your name on it. Then they say it is a mistake, the money isn't your, it's theirs and they quickly leave with your card and your PIN (remember, one of them stand closely behind you to see you entering the PIN before they tap your shoulder). A friend of mind lost RM6,000 (about 3,000 dollars) in a week before she realized it.

[triffid]

Since the bailouts of the big banks Many of them have put the gas petal
to the foreclosure process in an effort to foreclose on as many homes as they can and turn around and resell them with clean paperwork.In florida alone a  special court was set up to rubberstamp as many foreclosures as possible.The article is in The November 2010 edition of the "Rolling stones".The fla system is nicknamed the "the rocket docket".The main interest of the judges is to process as many as they can in an hour without even being concerned with proper paperwork .Hence errors occurr in nearly 100% of the mortgages being foreclosed on.In some cases the banks told homeowners to not pay for three months so they would be considered for loan modications but kept no records of who they gave permission to fall behind payments to.There was a lot of fraud committed by the banks in the sub prime mess.But our legal system supports the banks nearly 100% against the average homeowner.

[triffid]

tired of paying for cable? here are other options.  http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/110122/you-dont-have-to-pay-for-cable-tv?mod=series-a-article  triffid