I was reading my Edward Jones contract when I came across this interesting sentence concerning FDIC payouts:

"As with all deposits, if it becomes necessary for federal deposit insurance payments to be made . . . there is no specific time period during which the FDIC must make insurance payments available. Accordingly, you should be prepared for the possibility of an indeterminate delay in obtaining insurance payment."

So, even if just a few banks collapse, if it's yours, you may grow old standing in line to collect on that insurance. Some insurance policy!!

jw

-- J Werner (jwerner15@hotmail.com), August 12, 1999

Answers

"backed by the full faith and credit of the American people".... OH GOODY ....... they'll use my credit (more paper) to pay for the old paper ...... whew, I feel better already.

-- Bob909 (Bob909@netscape.net), August 12, 1999.

JW, what if you and your bank can't agree on your account balance? What good will FDIC do you, then? You probably won't even be permitted to file a claim. And what if you are just one upset depositor among all the rest of that bank's upset depositors? Whose problem gets attended-to first? How long will all this problem resolution take? Where will you be in the pecking order? Might be a good idea to have some cash stuck away somewhere, no...?

-- Norm Harrold (nharrold@tymewyse.com), August 12, 1999.

Hey,

don't worry - double-decker says everythings OK, WE'RE ALL COVERED, there are greenbacks coming out the feds' KAZOO,

no problemo

be happy

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), August 12, 1999.

I seem to recall that after the savings and loan crisis of the '80's (anyone remember?) the FDIC had quite a bit of money to pay out- billions, in fact, the largest taxpayer bailout I can remember although I think the recent hedge fund bailout might have bigger numbers. I remember reports that it took YEARS for some people to get their money, and then it wasn't a penny above the $100,000 limit. Did you have 400k in the S&L? Too bad. 100k is all you get.

-- Forrest Covington (theforrest@mindspring.com), August 13, 1999.

Forrest:

It is more perverse than that. All depositors in large institutions were made whole while in some smaller ones depositors were held to the rule.

This is second hand from articles I recall reading at that time but never saw disputed.

-- Tom Beckner (xouttbeckner@erols.com), August 13, 1999.

Trusting the banks nowadays is just plain stupid. Trusting the FDIC; esp. after reading the original post has got to be even dumber. Anyone with any intelligence who is informed will take out their money just as a precautions, in turn this will cause bank runs whether or not the lights stay on or if it becomes TEOTWAWKI!!

A financial crisis is not only possible but very likely.

-- Liz Conti (liz.conti@pharma.com), August 13, 1999.

There speaks the voice of reason, thank you Liz, and do you mud wrestle? :)

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), August 13, 1999.

OK, Andy, I'm starting to get pissed....

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.com), August 13, 1999.