Thread: Cypriot "Bailout" Daylight Robbery

I wondered why Christine Lagarde's mug was in the background of the BBC report.

The IMF was in on this. No surprise really.

Quick points:

1. This affects all bank account holders. Seniors, who saved for old age. Everyone.
2. This deal/robbery was done in the middle of the night.
3. Bank account are electronically frozen, so account holders cannot transfer their money out (can only use ATMs for daily small withdrawals).

This, has now been done a first time. This, is the precedent. It's an "up-front" tax. While you sleep. Surprise! Surprise! By unelected IMF and EC Bank bureaucrats.

OK, IMF's Lagarde was involved in this. As for article below, most of the money is Cypriot money. Russians do have money in these accounts, but the point is to hit everyone in the middle of the night.


Europe Announces Stunning Bailout For Cyprus. Bank Depositors To Get Instant 10% Tax Before Banks Reopen This Week

Eurozone leaders and the IMF on Saturday announced an unprecedented levy on all deposits in Cypriot banks as the sting in the tail of a 10-billion-euro bailout for the near-bankrupt government in Nicosia.

Intended to apply to everyone from pensioners to Russian oligarchs alleged to have billions stashed away in what officials say is a bloated Cypriot banking sector, the "stability levy" immediately raised a flood of concerns among finance experts over a possible bank run in bigger eurozone economies, where fragile public finances are also under scrutiny.

Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, after chairing some 10 hours of talks to strike the deal with counterparts including International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde and the European Central Bank's Mario Draghi, said the "upfront, one-off" tax is expected to raise 5.8 billion euros on top of the loans still to be finalised by eurozone parliaments.

The levy will see deposits of more than 100,000 euros in Cypriot banks hit with a 9.9 percent charge when lenders re-open their doors on Tuesday after a scheduled bank holiday on Monday. Under that threshold and the levy drops to 6.75 percent.

Top ECB official Joerg Assmussen said the only way to drive down what was originally requested as a 17-billion-euro rescue was to claw back money from the Cypriot banking sector, which is estimated to hold assets worth five times the country's economic output.

Cyprus Bailout Deal - Business Insider

for such a small country when it comes to the population and GDP that's a pretty significant loss. their banks are paying much higher APR's on deposit accounts than in the US is just about all banks in the world are at this point. it's almost as if they are whacking depositors for any interest gains accrued over the years.

considering the 9T wealth transfer that happened when the US housing market bubble crashed I think they have stolen enough from US workers for a while. since US banks are borrowing from the FED at 0% and paying depositors less than <1% APR but charging 14%+ on revolving credit accounts they are losing any monies at all hence the profits they are pulling in during an economic downturn.

Damn that's scary!

Originally Posted by theCaptn'

Damn that's scary!

I hope you're being serious and not taking the piss.

We were taught that private property was...private property. We were taught that we could trust the banks. Put your hard-earned money in the banks. It's safe. Insured.

Now, not so.

They can come and legally take it - while you're a sleep.

Originally Posted by Big Smoothy

We were taught that private property was...private property. We were taught that we could trust the banks. Put your hard-earned money in the banks. It's safe. Insured.

Now, not so.

They can come and legally take it - while you're a sleep.

they told us a lot of things. I guess at least we got to live through the greatest era of false prosperity in the US at the expense of the future of the country. history and economics once again will repeat itself making an example out of the US for all the world to see.

How to Destroy a Country 101

Step #1 - concentrate the wealth & political power in the hands of the few
Step #2 - wait until the economy implodes

It's enough to make someone want to take their money out of a bank and put in a home safe.
Confiscation by politicians of savings deposits, they call this confiscation theft a "tax" and no more concept of property rights.

Some Cyprus official was interviewed on CNBC and he stated this is a "one time event".
A one off.
Yeah, how does anyone know that for certain?
Professional politicians tell lies for a living.

If this causes global contagion and bank runs due to people thinking that politicians may grab their bank savings accounts then this may cascade and will make the 2007-2008 financial system crisis meltdown pale in comparison.

It is being reported that this is due to Cyprus making a bet on Greek debt.
These idiots have now caused a potential global crisis due to gambling in the financial system.
The same type of thing that they did back in 2007 that caused the global financial crisis.

Entire article at: Cypriot Outrage Over Tax Could Derail Euro-Area Bailout - Bloomberg

Cypriot Outrage Over Tax Could Derail Euro-Area Bailout

While Cyprus accounts for less than half a percent of the 17-nation euro economy, the raid on bank accounts risks triggering new convulsions in the financial crisis that began in 2009 in Greece. Moody's Investors Service said that the move is a significant step toward limiting support for bank creditors across Europe and shows that policy makers will risk financial- market disruptions to avoid sovereign defaults.

The tax is a worrying precedent with potentially systemic consequences if depositors in other periphery countries fear a similar treatment in the future, Joachim Fels, chief international economist at Morgan Stanley (MS) in London, wrote in a client note.

On Line

Scenes of Cypriots lining up at cash machines raised the specter of capital flight elsewhere and threatened to disrupt a market calm since the ECB's pledge in September to backstop troubled nations debt. With no government in Italy, Spain in the throes of a political scandal and Greece struggling to meet the terms of its own bailout, more turmoil could hamper efforts to end the crisis.

I think this YouTube quote sums it up, "Who is doing the actual bailout then? its not Merkel, this is a test to test the water then they will rob the other countries, if people put up with this they deserve everything they get."

Originally Posted by DOMS

I think this YouTube quote sums it up, "Who is doing the actual bailout then? its not Merkel, this is a test to test the water then they will rob the other countries, if people put up with this they deserve everything they get."

DOMS,

Was this in the OP?

How many bank officials and politicians took their money out BEFORE this?!

Wouldn't put it past these crooks in this country, Smoothy! One thing I surmised from these crooks, they want to take every nickel & dime they can from us. And after the wall st. debacle if your money is still in one of those thieving banks and not a credit union, you're giving them the go ahead!

Originally Posted by DOMS

if people put up with this they deserve everything they get."

easier said then done. look what they did to the US housing market. what did we do or could have been done about that? absolutely nothing.

they came after housing equity and they got it turning the majority of the US population into permanent renters. and they got huge bonuses for doing so.

Why the Cyprus Bail In Is a Bigger Deal Than You Think

By Henry Blodget

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By Henry Blodget | Daily Ticker ? 3 hours ago

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You can be forgiven for thinking that you don't need to give a hoot about what's going on in Cyprus.
After all, it's just a little island somewhere in the Mediterranean.
But what's going on in Cyprus could actually matter ? not just to the rest of Europe, but to the rest of the world.
Here's the short version of what's happening:
Some of Cyprus's banks, like many banks in Europe, are bankrupt.
Cyprus went to the eurozone to get a bailout, the same way Ireland, Greece, and other European countries have.
The eurozone powers-that-be (mainly Germany) gave Cyprus a bailout and insisted that the depositors in Cyprus's banks pay part of the tab ? a startling condition that has never before been imposed on any major banking system since the start of the global financial crisis in 2008.
The deal did not touch the bondholders. Why the depositors? These are folks who had their money in the banks for safe-keeping.
When Cyprus's banks reopen on Tuesday morning, every depositor will have some of his or her money seized. The current plan is that accounts under 100,000 euros will have 6.75% of the funds seized. Accounts over 100,000 euros will have 9.9% seized. And then the eurozone's emergency lending facility and the International Monetary Fund will inject 10 billion euros into the banks to allow them to keep operating.
Cyprus's government tried to explain this deal by observing that it was better than the alternative: Immediate bankruptcy and closure of the major banks. In that scenario, depositors would lose a lot more money. Businesses would go bankrupt. And tens of thousands of people would be instantly thrown out of work.
Not surprisingly, news that deposits in Cyprus's banks would be seized triggered an immediate run on the banks.
Depositors rushed to ATMs and tried to withdraw their money before it could be seized.
But the ATMs weren't working. And the government has now made it impossible to transfer money out of the country.
So, assuming Cyprus's government approves the deal (still pending--with the vote now postponed until Wednesday), depositors will have some of their money seized.
Now, half of these depositors are said to be Russian oligarchs and other non-residents. And unless you happen to have the misfortune of having an account in a Cyprus bank, you may not care much whether these depositors have their money seized.
After all, that was the risk they took for storing their money in weak banks, right?
Well, yes, that was the risk they took.
But ever since the Great Depression wiped out a big percentage of the world's banks, vaporizing the bank depositors' savings in the process, banking system regulators have tried to do everything they can to protect bank depositors.
And they are smart to do so.
Because the moment depositors think that there is risk to their savings, they rush to banks to yank their money out.
That's called a run on the bank.
And since no bank anywhere has enough cash on hand to pay off all its depositors at once, runs on the bank cause banks to go bust.
That's what happened to hundreds of banks in the Great Depression.
And it's what happened to Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and other huge banks during the financial crisis (though, with Bear and Lehman, the folks who yanked their money out weren't mom and pop depositors but other big financial institutions). It's what threatened to bring the entire U.S. financial system to its knees. And it's why the U.S. and European governments have been frantically bailing out banks ever since.
But now, thanks to the eurozone's bizarre decision in Cyprus, the illusion that depositors don't need to yank their money out of threatened banks because they'll be protected has been shattered.
Depositors in Cyprus banks will lose some of their money.
They will be furious about this.
And they will, rightly, feel that it is grossly unfair ? because depositors in the bailed-out banks in Ireland, Greece, etc. didn't lose their money.
And they will feel like fools for not having taken their money out.
And ... here's the important part ...
Other depositors at weak banks all over Europe, in places like Spain, Italy, and Greece, will rightly wonder whether this is the beginning of a new era of bank bailouts, an era in which bank depositors are going lose some of their money.
What do you think those other depositors in Spain, Italy, Greece, etc., are going to feel like doing when they realize that, if their banks ever need a bailout, they might have their deposits seized?
That's right.
They're going to feel like yanking their money out of their banks.
And if some of them yank their money out of their banks, well ? then the financial condition of those banks will go from weak to insolvent.
And the banks will go rushing to their governments and the eurozone for help.
And the eurozone decides to seize the deposits of more bank depositors.. Well, then, a good portion of Europe might suddenly experience a good old-fashioned bank run.
That, to put it mildly, could be a disaster.
It could bring the European financial crisis, which has lurched from one flare-up to another for most of the past five years, to a rather sudden head.
How much would it cost for the powers-that-be to bail out all of Europe's weak banks at once?
A lot.
More than the Eurozone has in its emergency lending facilities, certainly. And more than the International Monetary Fund has on hand.
So the U.S. would probably have to get involved. And, regardless of whether the U.S. got directly involved, the European economy would likely suffer the equivalent of a heart attack.
That wouldn't be good for the U.S. economy.
Or the Chinese economy.
Or any other economy that sells things to Europe.
So, you can see, this little decision to seize a little money from bank depositors in the little island of Cyprus could be a much bigger deal than you think.
It could conceivably precipitate a run on weak European banks.
And a run on weak European banks could hammer the European economy and then the economy of Europe's trading partners. And it could cause global markets to crash.
So keep an eye on what's going on over there in Cyprus.
It's potentially much more important than it seems.

IMO...it's far less of a big deal for the US because the vast majority of non-retirement savers are in the upper income quintiles. the savings rate for the 3 lowest income quintiles makes up almost a non-measurable amount of the current US national savings rate of 2.4%.

Personal Saving Rate (PSAVERT) - FRED - St. Louis Fed

anybody that has a large portion of the income left over after expenses either invests it or offshores it to non-US banks paying much higher APR rates then the pathetic sub 1% rate in the US today. there is simply no reason to put your non-retirement money in a US bank when your only getting an APR of 25% of the real inflation rate your not earning anything.

you want to see smth Cypriot?
i ll saw smth

.

This can, and probably will, happen in the US. And it will be the vast majority of wealth (if you can call it that) the non-wealthy have.

With every passing day, it becomes clearer and clearer the Cyprus deposit confiscation "news" was the most unsurprising outcome for the nation's financial system and was known by virtually everyone on the ground days and weeks in advance: first it was disclosed that Russians had been pulling their money, then it was suggested the president himself had made sure some ?21 million of his family's money was parked safely in London, then we showed a massive surge in Cyprus deposit outflows in February, and now the latest news is that a list of 132 companies and individuals has emerged who withdrew their Euro- denominated deposits in the two weeks from March 1 to March 15, among which the previously noted company Loutsios & Sons which is alleged to have ties with the current Cypriot president Anastasiadis.

List Released With 132 Names Who Pulled Cyprus Deposits Ahead Of "Confiscation Day" | Zero Hedge