In a Cashless World, You'd Better Pray the Power Never Goes Out (mises.org)

schwit1 quotes the Mises Institue: When Hurricane Maria knocked out power in Puerto Rico, residents there realized they were going to need physical cash — and a lot of it. Bloomberg reported that the Fed was forced to fly a planeload of cash to the Island to help avert disaster. "William Dudley, the New York Fed president, put the word out within minutes, and ultimately a jet loaded with an undisclosed amount of cash landed on the stricken island. [Business executives in Puerto Rico] described corporate clients' urgent requests for hundreds of thousands in cash to meet payrolls, and the challenge of finding enough armored cars to satisfy endless demand at ATMs... As early as the day after the storm, the Fed began working to get money onto the island."

For a time, unless one had a hoard of cash stored up in ones home, it was impossible to get cash at all. 85 percent of Puerto Rico is still without power... Bloomberg continues: "When some generator-powered ATMs finally opened, lines stretched hours long, with people camping out in beach chairs and holding umbrellas against the sun." In an earlier article from September 25, Bloomberg noted how, without cash, necessities were simply unavailable:

"Cash only," said Abraham Lebron, the store manager standing guard at Supermax, a supermarket in San Juan's Plaza de las Armas. He was in a well-policed area, but admitted feeling like a sitting duck with so many bills on hand. "The system is down, so we can't process the cards. It's tough, but one finds a way to make it work."

Comments

Re:Puerto Rico

[ScentCone]

I am appalled that Puerto Ricans are being treated as a second class citizens.

You mean you've BEEN appalled for years about that? About how the local politicians in PR have, after being returned to office over and over again, carried on in a completely corrupt way, resulting in third-world conditions for those in PR still try to work and produce there? PR's people get treated like second class citizens because they ACT like second class citizens, and maintain a local government that keeps them that way. Let me guess, they were being treated like first class citizens by Obama, a year, ago, but everything's changed since then, right? Their infrastructure wasn't fragile a year ago, their economy was robust a year ago, and Obama had a huge fleet of people and material endlessly waiting to be dispatched to PR in case that hurricane-prone island had an usually bad hit. But all of that disappeared in January, right? Gotcha.

Donald Trump even believes that Puerto Rico is foreign country ...

Why lie? Really, what's the point? Who do you think you're fooling?

... and does not deserve our help.

Yeah, the tens of thousands of federal employees and military people he's dispatched there, and the millions of tons of supplies, generators, fuel, medical equipment, food, water and the rest - he's keeping all of that just off-shore and teasing them with it because he hates them. Gotcha. Again, why are you lying? What's your agenda?

This is our chance to do right by PR and develop plans to manage disasters.

You mean RE-plan. Because up until Trump took over the executive branch, everything was planned and ready, right? The career people who work in all of the relief agencies had it all under control and ready until January, when they suddenly forgot everything, sank all of the supplies because Trump ordered them too, and are now working on the "genocide" program that some partisan socialist mayor in PR says Trump is executing. Gotcha. Or are you actually admitting that when the Democrats had full control of the government, and had control of the executive branch and thus the relief agencies like FEMA for the last eight years, they did nothing to make things more prepared? I see.

The aftermath of Katrina and Rita turned thriving areas into scenes right out of disaster films.

Right. Because those were (ready?) disasters. Puerto Rico also just had a real disaster. Made as difficult as it is because of a terribly corrupt local political environment, and a third-world quality power infrastructure they weren't willing to invest in. Why? Because they'd already squandered all of their people's money on corrupt waste. Not unlike New Orleans, really, where much of the scale of the problem was a result of LOCAL incompetence. Displays of desperation on the part of people who live below sea level in a routine hurricane target, but can't set aside a week's worth of canned beans and 30 gallons of drinking water because that's just too much trouble. It's Bush's fault! It's Trump's fault!

I believe he truly thinks a few roles of Bounty will solve anything.

Because you're full of crap and you know it. I suppose you think that Barrack Obama standing around shaking hands and helping to dish up some food for people in a line WAS going to solve things? Ah, I see. You're a complete hypocrite. Got it.