We had something like that in the early 90s: in an attempt to combat hyperinflation, the government froze all the money above a certain small threshold on every

We had something like that in the early 90s: in an attempt to combat hyperinflation, the government froze all the money above a certain small threshold on everyone's bank accounts (known as the "confisco da poupança", see the first bullet at https://pt.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Plano_Collor&oldid=62623736#Medidas_do_Plano_Collor_I https://pt.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Plano_Collor&oldi... for a bit more detail). Even today, rumors of something like that happening again are enough to make old people take money from the banks, even though the country's constitution was later patched to specifically forbid that kind of measure (constitutional amendment 32 which changed/added article 62 paragraph 1 item II, see http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/constituicao/emendas/emc/emc32.htm http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/constituicao/emendas/em... for the full text).