May be safer than you think. From a related post:
"...there is not just one US currency dollar, but two. Virtual dollars exist only on computers, and can be “created” just by adding another zero on the end.
Physical dollars are printed in only two places in the US: Fort Worth and Washington, D.C. And even at full capacity, they only print enough paper money to back 5% of US daily retail trade. The other 95% is done with virtual money.
And paper money also has something that virtual money does not. It is “legal tender”, and this is very important.
Were America to not be able to access its virtual money, or if Americans just *refused* virtual money, insisting on physical cash, there would be something called a “currency split”, in which all the trillions of virtual debt would cause virtual money to hyperinflate; while at the same time, physical cash would *deflate* 20 to 1. That is, a physical nickel would have the purchasing power of a dollar right now.
All sorts of things could happen to cause this virtual money bubble to pop. All the people who owned virtual money would suddenly be impoverished, either by not being able to access it; or its value hyperinflating to nothing.
And one thing could happen to cause the massive deflation of paper money: the public refusing to trade in virtual money. Insisting on cash.
Since the government can’t physically print more money, could it print higher denomination bills? Actually not, for the simple reason that there are not enough lower denomination bills to make change for it.
All the people right now who get checks from the government for whatever, would find that the checks are worthless if nobody will trade them for cash, and nobody will accept checks, credit, debit or any other virtual instrument in payment for debts. Because they don’t have to. Because virtual money is *not* legal tender.
“I have a million dollars in the bank!”
“Good for you, but the price of a stick of gum is still 1 cent. Unless you have a cent, you cannot buy it.”
Now granted, this situation is untenable for the government, so they would have to do something, but by that point, “Gresham’s Law” would come into effect. Nobody would want their worthless virtual dollars, and would spend them as soon as they got them, for anything they could get. And everybody would horde physical dollars and coin.
And, as with the deflation during the Great Depression, the saying would hold true: “You could buy a pound of hamburger for a nickel, but nobody had any nickels.”
42 posted on Saturday, November 24, 2012 8:30:52 PM by yefragetuwrabrumuy
"The Reserve Bank printed a Z$21 trillion bill to pay off debts owed to the International Monetary Fund"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation_in_Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe issued 100 trillion, 50 trillion, 20 trillion notes overnight. They even paid off debts with a 21 Trillion bill.
Commodities is real money since it will always be in demand.