Should Australia support it’s expats in time of crisis?

[AiA in Atlanta]

Curious SN, how does that work, buying your way out with US dollars? Did the US military take your money?

AiA,

Our boss gave us all $1000 cash under the table bonus a couple of months before. It was all in big faced $20 bills. There has been counterfeiting of a smaller faced Ben Franklin bills so we got fresh new prints.

The ATMs, the Mobile phone network were not working. The banking systems were not working so no-one accepted credt cards. Local currency was inflating at an huge rate daily so no-one would accept local currency for travel.

We went to the airport, had to nearly run over bandits o nthe freeway as we would not stop for anything and when we got the the airport their was absoluate chaos. There was a huge line for the ticket counter. I means hundreds of people. We found out we could not pay by card...etc. I guy who had worked in airport in Saudi and I when to the front of the queue and placed on the counter a pile of US dollar, all the money we had as a group. It must have been about $10,000.
This got there immediate attention and allowed us to jump the queue. Everyone was booking to go out of Indonesia and we could not get on any flights to Singapore or Malaysia or Austalia or anywhere. So then we thought, "well if everyone is going that way... let's look at going another way". So we got ticket to bali, an internal flight. We had to pay cash and had to wait 6 hours for the flight. if we did not have cash, we would not have got out so easily. I heard stories of people being there for days, their families could not help get money to them as the banking system had failed. Cash was king. .... I alway have a $1000 US with me in a safe when I am in countries that could go unstable. i have a local phone card because the phones at the airport were full of coins and did not allow anymore coins so my wife had a phone card so we could contact Australia. After this event the boss had card printed in English and Bahasa Indonesian to say we are worth more money alive then dead and to call this numbe if we were kidnaped. We all carried this when we went back. Never used it. I also carry a wallet with me that is worth stealing and US dollars hidden in 2 of my pockets in case I get robbed or mugged in certain countries....etc.

Run number one. Carry US dollars freshly minted and you can buy your way out.

Interesting story. Wonder how long the US dollar with have that kind of cache? Seems there may be a number of currencies competing on equal footing soon: Can't imagine the Euro going away and the Yuan is on the upswing.

[IQS.RLOW]

The piiigs have relegated the euro to junk bond status as a global currency and the Renminbi is no where close to being able to be reliably tradable on the global markets.

Maybe sometime in the future but it would take an extreme fuckup on the part of the US to make that happen, which is in no ones interest. I remember the speculation when they first introduced the euro that this was THE currency to be in.

Looks like diversity doesn't mean shit when you have ever inflating sponges suckling off the benefits

[AiA in Atlanta]

would take an extreme fuckup on the part of the US to make that happen, which is in no ones interest

fuckups are a way of life in the US these days ... am sure it is in someone's interest for the dollar to lose its status

[Outlaw Yogi]

am sure it is in someone's interest for the dollar to lose its status

Apparently China is currently lobbying to have US dollars replaced as the universal currency.
Have seen several articles like this now.
China "Attacks The Dollar" - Moves To Further Cement Renminbi Reserve Currency Status
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/china- ... e-currency

Reuters provides a simple translation and summary of the announcement: "China hopes to allow all exporters and importers to settle their cross-border trades in the yuan by this year, the central bank said on Wednesday, as part of plans to grow the currency's international role. In a statement on its website http://www.pbc.gov.cn, the central bank said it would respond to overseas demand for the yuan to be used as a reserve currency. It added it would also allow the yuan to flow back into China more easily." To all those who claim that China is perfectly happy with the status quo, in which it is willing to peg the Renmibni to the Dollar in perpetuity, this may come as a rather unpleasant surprise, as it indicates that suddenly China is far more vocal about its intention to convert its currency to reserve status, and in the process make the dollar even more insignificant.

[J.W. Frogen]

"Bloody oath."


I love that, God dam this is a wonderful country.