The Kings of the East continue to drain the readily available gold and silver inventory from the system. They are trading the accumulated U.S. Treasury debt of years past. Americans have accumulated “Made in China” goods, much decaying in garages and storage units, or bigger houses, aka McMansions. The baby boomers have mortgaged the future for instant gratification of the present.
A black swan event such as a “failure to deliver” on a contract by a large bank could initiate the next systemic crisis, believed to be about ten times worse than the 2008 debacle. Do you think banks will take any other action than protect mode if one of their own fails to deliver? Fed funds are overnight deposits, bank to bank. You sell excess funds typically to a larger bank for one day then they return the funds through the Federal Reserve the next day. What happens if one large bank fails to return the funds? The Federal Reserve would step in but once the system realized that the bank was in trouble, liquidity would dry up and everyone would begin hoarding their cash. Lending would dwindle, profits would tank and banks would sustain greater losses in an already fragile system.
It would not hurt to keep some currency available outside the bank. It is better to have too much cash than not enough. Keep your eye out for a black swan!