U.K. Faced ‘Bank Runs, Riots’ as RBS and HBOS Neared Collapse

[Emeline]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601208&sid=aMfETcYI2t7Y


Oct. 7 (Bloomberg) -- A year ago today, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and HBOS Plc were close to collapse, causing a chain reaction that could have ended with riots in U.K. cities, security analysts and economists said.

Bank failures would have forced the government to cancel police leave and deploy troops as the breakdown of the financial payments system threatened the ability of utilities to provide essential services, said David Livingstone, a fellow at the Royal Institute for International Affairs in London, a former adviser to the government’s Cobra crisis response committee.

“You are talking about a situation with mass disorder and panic,” the former Royal Navy officer said in an interview. There would be “riots, pandemonium, everyone fending for themselves.”

[slow_dazzle]

That's one for me to send on Emeline. Thanks

Our wonderful economic system could easily collapse in a heartbeat.

[Pyotr]

More ammo for the fast crash crowd I suppose.
Kinda makes you wonder whether "slow crashers" like John Michael Greer and James H. Kunstler even considers the impact a sudden, sharp implosion of the financial system would have on our ability to cope with all the other emerging crises. And as we all know by now, peak oil, even without any other crises, means the end of economic growth, aka systemic economic failure. Grind, grind, ka-boom.

I'm torn between wanting civilization to end NOW and wanting it to limp along long enough to perhaps reform itself to something more intelligent. But since everyone who counts for anything have considerable stakes in keeping the present system going, a voluntary transition to a sustainable steady state economy is just not in the cards on any large, meaningful scale. Therefore, civilization as we currently know it, will implode all on its own. If that's true, why even fight it if you're so inclined? If you're an anarchoprimitivist or at the very least think Derrick Jensen and people like him make a good point, why not just rejoice in the fact that the present socioeconomic arrangement is selfdestructive?

[yellowrocker]

I like this part:

“If you look at the market, people assume it is back to normal, but there are huge risks in the system.”

Indeed.

[PseudoPhil]

If you're an anarchoprimitivist or at the very least think Derrick Jensen and people like him make a good point, why not just rejoice in the fact that the present socioeconomic arrangement is selfdestructive?

The destruction of fiat economies would no doubt be welcomed by many, but the problem is the destruction would not be contained to the economies themselves, but would be propagated through the environment as the economies attempt to chew through as many natural resources as possible before collapsing under their own diminishing returns.