Do you have automatic deposit? Automatic bill paying? Suppose the deposits don't get made, but the withdrawals still come out? Just because the FDIC backstops your bank doesn't mean you will get your money promptly, in the meantime you may be on the hook for these administrative gaps.

Definitely try to curtail all automatic bill paying. Hedge funds can freeze accounts, your FDIC can do the same thing. While we watcht the dollar move higher, (Gary Dorsch at Sirchartsalot has an interesting read on this, he thinks that OPEC is banking on McCain, because they fear that Obama and Biden, will cut military support) anyway as the dollar goes higher it becomes more problematic.

In Bob Prechters scenario for the financial doomsday event, the final leg is a rally in the dollar. Get to cash Andrew.

The important implications are

A) Did MMS accept oil in payment and store it in the SPR?

B) Does anyone know whats' really in the SPR?

C) Did the MMS transfer payments without transferring the oil, at least in any reasonable amount of time, thus creating false inventory build reports in enterprise storage, allowing them to drive down the price of oil, which during the 2004 midterm elections helped drive down the price of gasoline?

D) Has anyone read Gary Dorsch's recent report "Maverick McCain and the Resurrection of the the US$, see it at http://www.321gold.com

E) This all sound faintly Enron like doesn't it. Boy are we sticking it to those grandmothers in California.

F) The head of IEA has been releasing oil from the SPR, which as I understand it is a Presidential preogative. Who gave him the authority?

Now seriously, are any of these poor white crackers starvin to death? The Republican theme is get rich on your own, get backstopped if you fail. It's hard to run against that, might take another election cycle, and a lot more pain, a lot more/

I watched NBC and CBS, they both gave the Republicans twice as much face time, in a supposedly nonpartisan event. Obama will never win without the MSM, and if today is any indication he should go home right now.

Greenspan created this problem by lowering Reserve Requirements. Raising those requirements would be a disincentive, but you could concurrently deregulate some activities, and raise these requirements.

One writer suggests that the Fannie and Freddie were bailed out to prevent the liquidation of 1.4 trillion in credit-default swaps. The derivative securities market is a global insurance program that could not meet its obligations. Somewhat like the LTCM plan to buy high yielding Russian Bonds, AND buy an offsetting derivative position that prevented a concurrent loss in the value of the Russian currency, there was no way the counterparties could guarantee the risk.

In Long Term Capitals case it became catastrophic because they were handling transfer of payment transactions.

The analogy can be applied to your personal checking account with a Money Center Bank. If they blow up a big trading position, your personal transfer of payment flow is in jeopardy.

Its really not so much different than buying stocks on margin, banks should never take a risk which is larger than their ability to pay. And while individual investors get margin calls, big banks and some well connected pols (HC) do not. This is pure bullshit of course. Was any bank customer too small to fail? Hell no, in some banks when your account sits idle for a few months they confiscate it, (B of A).

We are concerned with the larger political ramifications, read Dorsch "Maverick McCain..." at 321gold. Maybe Obama should extend an olive branch to foreign holders of US debt, and they will step up to the plate. If the Saudi's (of whom Bin Laden is one) are willing to backstop the US dollar and oil production in exchange for protection from Iran (call it racketeering if you will) then why shouldn't Obama be the one making the deal?

Its clear that Bush was not going to sell the Saudis high tech military hardware, and leave their defense problems to them, but perhaps Obama could try that. Being from Chicago he must know something about gangsters?

Anyway the flow of these things follows a quid pro quo. China, Russia, et al. The Republican gangsters have the Middle East(side) figured out, but that's just small potatoes. The Russians and the Chinese are waiting, hand extended, politely behind their backs, of course. Can't we all just get along?

We'll pull those missiles aimed at Moscow out of Europe, and you keep the energy spigots, and the money spigots open. Its pretty simple, Obama, not get in there, and do it.

Global derivative positions are the holy grail of all economic policy. One might surmise that the SWFs represent the solvency of that counterparty risk, like the entity to which LCTM's Russia bonds, was tied. Clearly we gave them US dollars and we have nothing to sell them in return, other than military (or mercenary) intervention on their behalf, or, in Russia's case, a removal of the disincentive.

It might be better to go bankrupt early, rather than later. Eventually the money runs out. Do you go to WaMu today and withdraw your cash or wait until Monday, when the doors are locked. The rush for the exits is an important psychological factor. So far the government can honor all of its obligations, but with each bailout there is a bit less to fall back on.