Since Congress voted yesterday to increase the US debt ceiling to 9 Trillion dollars, the possibility of a sudden, catastrophic devaluation of our US currency just became a bit more likely.

This happened in 2001 in Argentina.  A guy who is living through it has posted  about it on a web forum.  Reading what it's really like after "The End of the World As We Know It" was instructive and interesting.

I compiled his writings into a Word document here...

www.cox-internet.com/johnb/storage/ArgentinaMeltdown.doc

He explains why semi-auto pistols are better than revolvers or rifles in such a situation.

[excerpted]

One day the Minister of Economy declared that no one would be able to get more than 100 bucks a day from the ATM nor close accounts. You could just get 100 bucks out of the bank a day. That was it. Then came the devaluation. Before this happened 1 USD = 1 Argentine Peso. Suddenly this changed into 1 US dollar = 3 Pesos. The banks kept the people’s money, including their deposits in US dollars. If you had 1000 U$S dollars in Bank Boston for example, they turned it into 1000 pesos, that equaled 333 U$S dollars. They stole 666 dollars from you! Prices went up 300%. Imagine for one moment what your life would be like if today you go to your local store and everything has gone up 300%. How would you survive with your pay check? Today this all seems far away. Not because it got better, but because us humans have this capacity to "get used to". How did our lives change? I cant even being to explain. ...The streets are more dangerous than ever, thanks to the general poverty.