mothballed

English language daily The Local has an interesting piece on the secret bank bunker, prompted by West-East tensions with the building of the Berlin Wall and Cuban Missile Crisis in the 1960s, in Cochem at the bend of the Mosel, close to Bonn and Wiesbaden. Of course, there was much area speculation on the nature of the shelter but there was no official disclosure regarding the contents until just a few weeks ago, including some 15 billion Marks on reserve in the form of an Ersatz currency to be used to counteract hyperinflation in the event of an emergency. Guided tours are ensuing.

I suppose that this mechanism could only so far in terms of stabilizing a devastated economy and with the lapse of the Cold War, there are certain priorities that would not pass muster as far as government sanctioned paranoia, but countries should not be so quick to abandon their sanctuaries and refuges because apprehension is adept at reinvention. A secret bank bunker might be handy in the event of a currency war and other market shocks. Continuity projects, like at Greenbriar or Denver Airport or Ullenwood, secret or not, in terms of infrastructure and intention are still valuable real estate.  I would like to take a tour of that bank bunker and explore the underworld caverns.