About a week ago, my old iPhone 3GS proudly notified me that my carrier settings had just been updated. This was a little odd since this phone has not had cell service for over a year – I just use it on wifi.
This morning at 5:30 AM, my phone started emitting the EAS tones but followed by no message. I had read a couple weeks ago, this functionality was being tested and that created alarm in people who didn’t know this capability was being demanded by the government. In this case, a flash flood warning was issued by the national weather service, which I found in my alerts.
Combine this capability with the NSA data gathering of every call placed by everyone – let me paint you a hypothetical scenario from far in the future:
*beeeeeeeeep*
Good day – don’t be alarmed that your cell phone is talking to you. This is the voice of Homeland Security. In accordance with federal laws we passed during secret hearings, the president has declared a national security emergency. During this emergency, you will find that you will be able to call only phone numbers we have authorized. This is to prevent terrorists or subversive groups from communicating with each other.
We know there are people you need to call – if you login to phonepermission.gov and enter your phone number, you’ll be shown a list of phone numbers that you have called over the past 3 years, indicating if the access to that number is blocked. If you find a number is blocked, simply tell us who the person is and why you want to call them. You’ll find that most businesses like your bank and cable TV company are automatically not blocked. In these dangerous times, I’m sure you understand why we have to take these actions to protect the public. Thank you and have a good day.
While I was typing the last paragraph the alarm went off again. Since I live close to the desplaines river, I suppose I should look outside. If the web site goes down, you can guess why
The internet too
http://lunaticoutpost.com/Topic-US-Government-Blocked-84-000-Websites-last-week
Oh, great! Can hardly wait for the day to arrive when we all get the “news” that due to budgetary necessity every bank account has been reduced by 40% to cover the current deficit.
Well, since the Fed controls the money supply and interest rates, they have already done that – just in a much more subtle way.
One thing that has surprised me about the past 5 years is how quiet seniors have been about the 0.03% interest rates on their CDs that they planned to live off of in retirement. Since they are mostly children of the Depression generation, maybe the choice of very low interest vs a total collapse of the banking system makes low interest rates seem like a reasonable choice
Art- They have been doing great. No better place to be than bonds in the past 5 years as rates declined, decline and declined some more- the asset prices are the reciprocal of the interest rates and they rose, rose, and rose some more.
What you are about to see is all hell break loose if and when the Fed stops pushing rates lower and lower and lower.
The bubble will burst and seniors will wake up one day soon with half the principal they have now, and inflation higher then the interest rate on their remaining principal.
BTW- Union pension funds and Social Security itself are “fully funded” with most of their funds in the bonds that are about to collapse.
I believe I said CDs, not bonds – and I agree
Since 2008, I’ve been cautioning that insurance companies are next – they have such a long time horizon, they can hide insolvency for a very long time. The annuities and life insurance policies were sold based on actuarial assumptions about long term interest rates that are no longer true. As a result, they may go into riskier investments, interest rate swap contracts, longer maturities, etc – chasing rates. The longer the maturity, the more you get clobbered by increases in rates – in addition to the risk of default.
A large swath of funding by business is now LIBOR+ short term borrowing hedged with interest rate swaps. Those swap contracts are there to limit the interest cost if LIBOR spikes up – of course issued by the same banks that control LIBOR. The interest rate swaps tend to be much shorter in duration thn traditional long term bonds – and also carry counterparty risk. You thought that if LIBOR + 6% goes over 8%, the interest rate swap limits your interest rate exposure to 8%. But if LIBOR + 6% became 12%, you still have to pay the 12%, even if the issuer of the swap defaults. Companies like Clear Channel are already riding “on the edge” with very little cushion before their cash flow to debt ratios go under. Both Cumulus and Clear Channel are pushing forward with gutting even more employees
You did say CDs and I stand corrected. I agree with you but ask you to also consider recent developments in Shibor
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2013-06-21/chinese-banks-ready-go-bust
The Feds already have electronic access to every Americans bank accounts, it’s in ObamaCare. They are simply going to withdraw our money, and inform us afterwards. 10,000 to 1 odds on that happening within my lifetime.
I agree with what has been posted above, but the electronic withdrawal of our money will probably come before the other SHTF.
After the 4th EAS flood warning alert, I started looking and found this was added in iOS 6.0, and can be turned off in the settings. Apparently, it also could send me amber alerts.
If it is not abused, it can be a valuable tool. I have spent time in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. An alert telling targeted people that a tornado is about to bear down on you is one that no one would mind as an interruption. One every day telling you that you have only x more days until April 15th would not be very welcome.
The flooding in Chicagoland is a well known problem. Almost all road / railroad crossings have the road going under the railroad, and those places immediately flood – the flash flood warning covers 7 or 8 counties, making it very indiscriminate. People who live in low lying areas know they have to pay attention any time it rains. The land is very flat and there is nowhere for the water to go.
I also lived in Oklahoma for a year in a town that was plastered by a tornado. The city had these things call “tornado sirens”