reply to post by Benevolent Heretic
With banks there is usually what is called a statuatory reserve deposit,a percentage that they must keep on hand to cover people who want to withdraw
savings ;the problem is if you give the bank $1000.00 and its statuatory reserve deposit is say 10 percent it can then lend $900.00 and this loan
becomes an 'asset' taking value to $1900-so $900.00 has been created out of thin air in return the bank often will get a real physical asset as
security such as real estate or a car but at the moment with real estate prices plumetting their security value is worth a lot less.
Very simply put a bank could not service a run on funds as a large percentage of its assets are not liquid ,your only hope is a government guarantee
even then you may only initially get cents in the dollar.
As for gold in a national emergency the government would confiscate it anyway however some gold and silver coin could be useful especially as the IRS
has to honour only the face value,not the true worth of the coin,best would be to have items on hand you can trade or barter with but don't go
overboard I don't think the world is about to collapse but there could be a tougher period ahead.