Above the fold

miss-r:

While storing away one’s remaining pennies is the sensible course of action assuming that very stormy day does come, isn’t the easiest way to stop it from happening to continue spending as you normally would?

If economies thrive so long as people are producing and spending, isn’t not spending counterproductive to their future health?

There’s got to be a parallel with global warming here.

Absolutely, the trouble is that nobody wants to be the last person to find out their savings have been wiped out because their bank has collapsed.  So just as with global warming, beggar-thy-neighbour policies (withdraw savings from bank, causing bank to be unable to meet its obligations and everyone else loses theirs) are actually “rationally” justifiable. Prisoners’ dilemma: the first one to rat ends up better off.