Money under the Mattress, Shotgun by the Door

By Daniel Brigman Copyright 2013

I was pretty young when I remember playing with my Great-grandmother’s silver coins.  I was fascinated by the dates on the old Morgans and Peace dollars.  1908 seemed like an eternity ago to a young boy.  One day, as I was getting something out of her dresser drawers, I was surprised to see quite a sizable stack of dollar bills…or “folding money” as it was called to her generation.

I asked her why she didn’t have the money in the bank.  It never crossed my mind that someone would keep so much money around.  She politely but assertively told me “that money is fine right there.  Better there than in the bank.”  I was much too young to understand her reasons at the time but as I got older I began to understand.  My Great-grandmother, and many of her time, did not trust banks as far as they could throw them.  Why would they?

Her generation’s mistrust was well-earned.  I read about the banks closing and taking millions of people’s money from them during the depression.  I read about the giant land grabs as a result of the severe economic downturn that paralyzed a nation during the 1930’s.  Because of my Great-grandmother, and what I have begun to see, the dresser drawer is looking better and better.

Just this week the Cyprus government, pressured by the Euro-zone central Bank, went into their citizen’s bank accounts and flat took up to 10%.  That was not a misprint…they stole 10% of the money in private bank accounts.  The people rightfully panicked and ran to the ATM as fast as they could.  Withdrawals were suspended quickly thereafter.  A Banking “Holiday” was declared.

A Banking Holiday?  Is that when the bankers steal your money and then go to Hawaii?  It may be fun for the bankers but certainly not for the people.  During this “Holiday” financial transactions are suspended in an effort to keep the money from leaving the country.  Wow, and I was under the impression the money in the bank was actually MINE.  How silly of me.

The same day the people of Cyprus were being robbed of 10% politicians in other countries throughout Europe were calling for a 15% “haircut” from accounts.  I guess 10% wasn’t enough for the bankers.  In America Chase Bank accounts were zeroed out throughout the country.  A panicked populous was about to riot when it was reported as a glitch and the money was returned to the accounts.  One observant customer noticed his account was at zero but the “amount (he) owed them stayed the same.”  Of course it did.  All this money is going straight to the central bankers anyway.  Do you think they would make such a mistake in YOUR favor?

The economic atmosphere around the globe is getting closer and closer to the Thirties.  In some ways it’s already worse.  I am not saying the sky is falling but I have seen Chicken Little staring up a lot.  Growing pressure on the working class is coming to a head.  The people suffer and the banks run amok and take whatever is not tied down.  That dresser drawer is indeed looking better and better.

Watch your wallet close because the pickpockets are the ones holding your money.  The proverbial fox watching the hen house.  A lifetime ago our Country came face to face with Thomas Jefferson’s most dire warning;

“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”

The economic upheaval of the Depression is coming back around and the ones I see winning are companies with the word “bank” at the end of their name.  How does every game of Monopoly end?  With one player owning everything and all the rest of the money back in the bank.  Sound familiar?  For years we have bought into the banking/paper-money establishment hook, line and sinker.  But I believe the tide is turning.

The attitude in our country and throughout the world is not so trusting as it used to be.  Is there anything as American as a healthy distrust of our government and banking system?  As fast as Americans are turning those slips of Federal Reserve Notes into guns, ammo and precious metals maybe the mantra for the next decade will be; “Money under the Mattress, Shotgun by the Door.”  And who would blame them?  Sure is hard to take 10% when its under the bed.  My Great-grandmother is looking smarter every day.