Since I’m back to working on my (infrequently updated) crazed survivalist blog I have been keeping an even closer eye on our coming financial collapse. Experts may tell you that Obama saved us all but the fact is that regional and local banks are shutting down faster than private businesses will when the health care mandates kick in. Think the economy is showing green shoots?

Think again:

WASHINGTON – Regulators on Friday shut down two Georgia banks and one each in Florida and Arizona, bringing to 41 the number of bank failures in the U.S. so far this year following the 140 that fell in 2009 to mounting loan defaults and the recession.

[…]

The four failures are expected to cost the federal deposit insurance fund a total of around $320.3 million.

Which is $320.3 million that the F.D.I.C. doesn’t have. The Federal Deposit Insurance Fund is a corporation that can go bankrupt just like any other, however because they are a branch of the government in all but name they can avoid bankruptcy by tapping into a special credit line from the Treasury.

That credit line is around $500 billion.

Do you see the problem here? Green shootists will tell you that beyond the credit line the F.D.I.C. has “the full faith” of the U.S. Government, meaning that they expect America to be able to cover any losses the F.D.I.C. can’t.

Again, do you see the problem here? America is broke and Obama’s ensuring we will become broker. To pay for anything we have to sell treasuries to other countries who think we’re a good investment.

How’s that working out?

The only way other countries will continue to loan us money to pay for bloated middle class entitlements and “stimulus” programs that seem to benefit no one but the people writing grant proposals is if we offer them interest rates we simply can’t afford. We can’t afford them because the elephant in the room on these treasury sales is that we have to pay this money back eventually. Treasury sales don’t produce money, they produce debt and running a country on debt is unsustainable.

So those debts have to be paid off. But with what? With job killing bills like Obamacare now law and who knows what else coming down the pike, exactly how will America pay off the holders of treasuries? By selling more treasuries of course, since tax revenues will decline as unemployment increases and companies shut down or limit their activity as a result of Obama’s war on free enterprise. But everyone is hip to this game so they will demand better terms that we can’t afford.

Now you see the problem, right? It may not happen this month or this year, but unless America suddenly develops a tree that blooms money the government is going to hit a point where they can’t cover your losses. One day your bank is going to close and when you stick your hand out to the F.D.I.C. to collect your “insured” money they’re going to give you an IOU and tell you to buy your groceries with Hope and Change.

You need to keep track of how your bank is doing, and you need to keep at least a month’s worth of operating expenses on hand, in cash, in your home. The interest rates banks are offering to savers is below the rate of inflation anyway so socking away a couple months worth of rent/grocery/utility money will not penalize you.

And of course there is more good news from the story above:

The pace of bank seizures this year is likely to accelerate in coming months, regulators have said, as losses mount on loans made for commercial property and development.

The mounting bank failures have sapped billions of dollars out of the deposit insurance fund. It fell into the red last year, hitting a $20.9 billion deficit as of Dec. 31.

The number of banks on the FDIC’s confidential “problem” list jumped to 702 in the fourth quarter from 552 three months earlier, even as the industry squeezed out a small profit. Still, nearly one in every three banks reported a net loss for the latest quarter.

The commercial real estate implosion coming our way is going to be a financial disaster of biblical proportions. You keep counting those green shoots. I’ll be getting ready for a financial collapse.