X-Message-Number: 31055 From: Mark Plus <> Subject: Cryonics organizations' alternative banking plans Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2008 22:16:57 -0700 I wonder if Alcor and CI have plans to keep enough of their money available in case the banks they currently use shut their doors and go out of business some Friday afternoon. Given the increasingly absurd demands for more and more bailouts for failing financial institutions, they should consider the possibility that their failed banks might not have funds from the FDIC to reimburse their "insured" deposits in a timely manner, or possibly not at all. I've even heard talk of a prolonged, Depression-style "bank holiday" in the near future: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_bank_holiday In case you want to dismiss this scenario, suppose you heard predictions just a few years ago that during 2008 we'd see the failures of Bear Stearn, IndyMac, Freddie/Fannie and Lehman Brothers, with Wachovia, Washington Mutual, Merrill Lynch and possibly hundreds of ordinary banks on the death watch. Warnings you probably would have dismissed at the time as alarmist twaddle have come true, with more such predictions in the queue because the same causes still operate. Given the complicated relationships in our financial system, I have to wonder now if the financial positions of the life insurance companies most cryonicists depend on to fund our suspensions have started to go bad. "Around 2010 the world will be at a new orbit in history. . . Life expectancy will be indefinite. Disease and disability will nonexist. Death wll be rare and accidental -- but not permanent. We will continuously jettison our obsolescence and grow younger." F.M. Esfandiary, "Up-Wing Priorities" (1981). Mark Plus _________________________________________________________________ Want to do more with Windows Live? Learn "10 hidden secrets” from Jamie. http://windowslive.com/connect/post/jamiethomson.spaces.live.com-Blog-cns!550F681DAD532637!5295.entry?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_domore_092008 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=31055