It is 2013 and this started in 2008. If they had simply nationalized the banks per the Swedish solution or even Iceland, all of Europe would be humming economically by now. This makes no sense and perhaps you can explain why countries are even staying in the Eurozone. I thought the point was without the EU they would collapse, but in essence, haven't these economies already collapse?
Banks are just sucking the life out of nations and people with no end in sight in seems.
Demanding pensions be cut, layoffs, "austerity" all to pump up the banking system has been going on since 2009 and we see the results. Spain is decimated, Greece is in a permanent depression, overall the European GDP has tanked.
They never mention Sweden's banking crisis or what Iceland did as an option.
Why this story is so important to the United States, beyond ramifications on the global economy is this is a first. It crosses a line never crossed to just take private savings.
Sure, delaying robbery forced onto victims from people hundreds and thousands of miles away all depends on when a vote is taken to soothe the victims. The criminals are funny, not bright, but damn they are funny. I'm guessing any Cypriot politician that values his life and property will vote for his own neck and vote against this crime. After all, Merkel, or Bernanke, or Lagarde won't be the ones running from tens of thousands of robbed victims. Same goes for any politician from here on in. War has been declared from ivory towers, time for the pissed on populations to take a stand.
For the talking heads on TV from banks and big business and government, please, I'd love to hear how seizing people's money will help cure all of this scary "uncertainty." Because it seems this would be the exact opposite of creating certainty. In fact, the Euro collapsing under its own weight would be much more certain and calming then seizing people's money as a short-term fix for one country in one union. Not only does that create short-term panic across the EU and globe, but it also destroys the system long-term.
These fools may be paid/steal billions of dollars and run governments or companies, but that never gave them an edge in insight, intelligence, or ethics.
Like I said, if the IMF helped plan this and approve it, anyone in the IMF nations or within reach of a computer link to the IMF should be afraid. That's everyone in the EU, the US, Japan, and everyone else. Just look at who funds and controls the IMF and that's a whole lot of citizens that can have money stolen from them.
If our "democratic" governments planned this and allowed this, how can they be trusted at all? Shouldn't the WH and Congressmen, the US banking regulators, the EU, IMF, see the implications of these actions and see the threat it poses to global economies as people can't trust banks anywhere with their money. Of course they should, but stealing from regular citizens is good for them in the short-term, they don't care about the complete destruction of faith and trust these actions (along with every other act since the bailouts) have taken.
Act accordingly, if people have a dime in banks, time to consider how much can be kept safely in a bank that cooperates with governments like these. These criminal acts by unelected banksters will only hasten the demise of the system and force people to go local, stop relying and trusting big banks and governments, and demand justice for those that allowed these crimes.
In the future, there will be individuals and trades that were no doubt made based on these bailouts and inside information that will probably come to light. E.g., an IMF employee or bankster with a friend at the IMF trading on the secret bailout deal before it was made public. When that happens, no one should be surprised. They steal and they make money not only through the theft and national rape, but through insider information too. Criminals, one and all. But they are given immunity expressly by our governments. If 99% of the population standing outside a Cypriot politician's office is robbed, should he look out for the bankers in Germany or the US or his own citizens? The same anywhere in the world.
This is a historical rerun. During the '30s, the Germans used various forms of financial blackmail to soften up the Balkans for easy conquest.
First the Germans gradually pulled the 'little countries' into total dependence on German trade. German businessmen and trade reps would buy up huge quantities of wheat and other raw materials at very high prices, then - often but not always - would fail to pay the debt. This made the 'little countries' reluctant to displease Germany, because their farmers and businesses stood to lose huge amounts of (potential) money if Germany pulled out entirely.
Next, the Germans used currency manipulation to buy up industries and properties with little real expenditure.
By the time the real war started, those Balkan countries had little choice. Most of them would have preferred the Russian side, but Germany already owned their resources.
As expected the globe is waking up to this move and the latest is parliament will have a "long session". Seems they are delaying their timing in order to pass it and not have a revolution.
Why don't these countries stand up to the banks, just seize them nationalize them, declare bankruptcy on the debt similarly to Iceland.
Is not being in the EU that bad long term considering so many are being absolutely decimated? Who cannot say Spain is destroyed?
Since the news is moving fast we won't update this article until there is a major event.
This is key - the banksters and their puppets/cohorts in the EU, World Bank, IMF, national governments (e.g., the US Government) know exactly who will be hit and when because they formulate the plans themselves! The criminals actually meet, exchange emails, phone calls to plan out the crimes and call them bailouts. The terms of the bailouts are known to every individual in the IMF, EU, US Congress before we know, or Cypriots know, or Spanish know. So that's weeks or months beforehand that every 1%er in power and with friends in Goldman, JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, etc. knows which bank will be hit, which accounts will be seized, at how much, and everything else because they actually plan it or have friends and colleagues in on the planning. The poor average Joe on the street has no say in it, has no clue about the terms until he reads about it as his $ is seized against his will. So the banksters plan the crime so they aren't affected, probably make money off it by betting against the targeted banks and nations (banksters love betting on bad news they know about due to insider information), and then sit back and laugh. There are no doubt many, many trades that will show up showing certain banks and individuals were making money off this deal long before it was public.
Watch in the coming days and weeks as our government does and says nothing about this. Watch as Treasury, the White House, FDIC (which really should care about reassuring/lying to Americans and saying this could never happen here), the Fed, Senate Banking Committee, Commerce give their approval because they have no problem with it. The US is the biggest contributor to the IMF, so they helped plan this. They get $ from banksters like Goldman and have bankster alum running parts of the US Government before they return to bankster jobs, so they love these actions against the average person that enrich big banks. And watch as the media controlled by the big banks says nothing about this. CNN.com was running stories on local crimes and the only mention of Cyprus was in the business section saying Cyprus received a big bailout. Fox etc. will remain silent because rules and private property only matter when it's the big people, not little ones. Nope, the politicians and media will go along because they are part of it.
It's great, banksters do everything in their power to get rich through crimes and controlling governments, they do everything they can to avoid taxes (including leaving their own countries like John Paulson might be doing), and then when governments are placed under conditions they can't afford by banksters, the banksters plan thefts of other people's money. And they even profit from those thefts beforehand because they negotiate the terms and have all the inside information to trade on long before it's public. It's so obvious, but no one in power cares or will do anything because they are the criminals themselves. Robespierre, anyone? Does someone have Google Maps for Versailles?
They delayed the vote until Monday, here. Question is if it is not law can people withdraw their money? I doubt it, but they are being strong armed by the IMF, if they had any guts they would nationalize the banks, wipe out the debts through whatever bankruptcy process they have, similar to Sweden.
All notice how Iceland said screw you Europe and they have recovered their economy.
Imagine what would happen if they seized the Cayman Island bank accounts? Probably one of the most well known tax havens in the world? Corporations would take over since that's primarily their money. Regular people getting 10% of their money seized, is ok, freezing offshore accounts, not.
Two sets of rules, one for poor individuals and the other for the super rich and corporations.
Apples declined -0.6% for the month, it was "other fruits" which increased 6.5%. Lettuce 8.5%. See table 2.
The seasonal adjustment is more to smooth out winter effects where vegetables would be more expensive. It's more supply, demand and what grocer's are charging this month.
It's nothing to be alarmed about, eggs vary greatly month to month in prices. Apples are up 11.1% from a year ago and lettuce has increased 24.5% from a year ago.
A year ago change removes seasonality for the most part so yes, these two have increased in price at the grocery. Iceberg has been cheap forever and I noticed it has gone up over the last year.
There was a drought last year which may have effected prices but a drought is a disaster so really not just seasonality and would increase prices for a long time due to it's effects.
So, month to month variations on things like some foods is nothing to worry about, a year over year increase is real and seasonality is not the cause.
So, is having no faith in one's own government or the banking system paranoia now or straight-up reasonable? Honestly, when a national government looks out for supranational groups like the IMF and their people (i.e., Goldman Sachs and other bankers and individuals) at the price of legalized theft, why would anyone trust their own government to look out for them? No sane person in any nation that has ties to the IMF or can be hit by the IMF should feel their $ is safe in a bank. The banksters are helping sow the seeds of their own destruction. They are waking people up to the fact that governments don't represent their own citizens, that money the people busted their asses can be stolen to help international bankers, and the people have no say in it. In fact, if they speak up and try to prevent foreign governments from stopping the theft and abuse, their own governments will crush them and help foreign forces while labeling them "hippies" or "Commies" or "lazy and uneducated." Protecting one's own money and nation are now denigrated and labeled by international criminals, how twisted. The Germans originally wanted 40% of their money? Man, that's bold.
No sense in looking to their governments for help, no faith or trust in governments, public servants, corporations, or banks, and honesty and hard work and ethics are treated like crap while crime and theft are now international policies that people have no say in - yeah, this will end badly very soon for those pushing this criminal agenda. This isn't just Cyprus, or Greece, this can happen anywhere across the globe. Just remember who and what were responsible so they don't escape trials for these crimes. Sure, bust ass in jobs that can cripple you, beg for low-wage jobs from corporations, and save scraps so that one day the same people meeting in beautiful vacation spots planning these actions that never faced hardship can laugh at the peasants and homeless as they literally steal people's money - how's that for justice and democracy?
If there aren't nationalistic groups across the globe demanding an end to the EU (or at least withdrawal), IMF, etc. and an end to enriching Goldman Sachs alum and others like them at the expense of 99% of the global population, it would be shocking. People have nothing left to lose (except whatever the IMF and EU allow them to keep, apparently). Theft, bailouts, destroying the international financial system, protection from criminal prosecutions in the past, present, and future (here and abroad), so who wants this to continue?
the food index increase was attributed in the release to a sharp increase in the fruits and vegetables index, which was up 1.4% on a seasonally adjusted basis but virtually unchanged for the month according to the unadjusted index, which rose from 293.714 to 293.742... http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.t01.htm
so did the price of fresh produce really go up month over month if the only change was in the seasonal adjustment to the price, but not at the grocers?
I agree, the precedent is incredible and if they had just nationalized the banks, wiped out the debt, used bankruptcy this wouldn't even be happening.
With Congress being absolutely insane and if anyone saw Ryan's "budget" I hope there is no doubt of the absolute ineptitude that makes Obama not look like the corporate corrupt disaster he and the Democrats are, it's hard to write.
We're talking until we are blue in the face against governments selling out the people, come hell or high water and damn the consequences.
I believe Cyprus had a deposit insurance program - one article said it was set at Euro 100,000 and under. Theoretically, therefore, all deposits at this level should be guaranteed by the government against bank failure. All amounts above this level are subject to bankruptcy proceedings and loss of capital. The bailout money should have been used to support the deposit guarantee fund so that a bank run is avoided and the average citizen is protected. Larger depositors should have known of the risks, just as in any other developed country people are regularly reminded that deposits over a certain size could be at risk of loss.
Why do governments hesitate to use the bankruptcy courts for insolvent banks? I understand the systemic risk arguments, but what is going on in Cyprus invites a far worse problem - bank runs in multiple countries, ultimately bringing about the very systemic crisis that was hoped to be avoided.
This action brings about an overall crisis of confidence in the entire global banking system. The US is not immune from the questions that will be in people's minds. Monday should see some fierce demand for gold, unless the central banks are able to suppress the price somehow. Even gold is a suspect investment these days. A paper purchase of a gold ETF is only as good as the balance sheet of the bank issuing and managing the ETF. Gold certificates, attesting to your ownership of physical gold in a bank vault, have been proven in the MF Global collapse to be worthless. The bankruptcy trustee can simply confiscate the gold for the benefit of the other creditors. Physical gold itself is relatively difficult to get. The US Mint ran out of its 2013 gold coins in the first week of January, and this has been happening for several years now. Even though investors will want to buy gold, there is no easy way to get gold that you can actually count on in physical form in times of crisis.
Land and commodity speculation may be revived, as long as people can hold on to something physical, fungible, and easily sold if necessary. Not many commodities qualify. I suppose the US dollar will also be subject to a buying frenzy as the last safe currency with liquidity (it's hard to get Swiss francs or Singapore dollars, for example - two other favorite safe havens). Investors are running out of choices, and how many will want to keep throwing money into the stock market when the market is dominated by financial names that are now subject to bank runs?
That's why this looks like the next leg of the crisis. The IMF and the EU/European Central Bank have labeled the entire banking industry as an untrustworthy recipient of your money, but there are few alternatives left short of putting paper notes under your mattress. We seem to be devolving into a barter economy ultimately, as safe fiat money dies out.
They seized private accounts of regular people. The first video above gives the percentages and there is some bogus claims that the Russians are getting hit, it's their accounts, offshored in Cyprus banks. Not true, the majority are just regular citizens saving up for retirement.
I agree with you this is an amazing story, we're not having governments socialize industry or even communist seizing private sector and making them part of the state here, we're in reverse! The private banking sector, per the IMF/EU Commission/ECB is seizing private assets to hand over to private banking.
Pay Attention! The EU and IMF confiscate private deposits
By Numerian, on March 16th, 2013
The next stage of the global financial collapse has now arrived.
In an announcement this weekend, the EU and the IMF have come to the rescue of Cyprus, at the request of the government, by offering Euro 10 billion in aid, in exchange for which the Cyprus government will impose a “one-off tax” on all private deposits in Cyprus banks. Depositors with Euro 100,000 or less in a bank account will be assessed a 6.75% tax, and deposits over this amount will be taxed at a rate of 9.9%
However politely this is described in press releases, this is nothing more than a confiscation of private property from people who did no wrong. The Cyprus banks prior to the 2008 financial collapse played a game similar to the Iceland banks – offering lavish interest rates on deposits to attract hot money, and investing the money in a real estate bubble that has now collapsed and crippled the banks. Most of the money came from Russian business interests.
Iceland chose a different tact in dealing with its crisis. It essentially stiffed the IMF and the governments of the UK and The Netherlands, which were the source of hot money for Icelandic banks and which fully expected the Icelandic government to cover the losses. The government refused, it allowed the banks to go under, it placed the losses on the the bank shareholders and bondholders, and it jailed the top bankers involved in the debacle. Iceland’s economy took a severe hit, but the pain was relatively short term and the economy has recovered nicely.
Elsewhere in Europe and the US, governments have chosen to protect bank management, bank shareholders, and bank bondholders, arguing that a “systemic crisis” will result if the banks are allowed to fail. The total deposits in the banking system of Cyprus account for less than 1% of total EU deposits, but nonetheless the EU is now arguing that a systemic crisis will engulf Europe if any bank is allowed to go under.
What is likely to happen after this decision is a systemic crisis of a different nature – bank runs throughout all the periphery countries, such as Spain and Italy, which have also asked for EU and IMF help for their banking industries. The citizens of Cyprus rushed to the ATM machines Saturday evening when this announcement hit the news wires, but the ATMs quickly ran out of cash. Cyprus is on holiday Monday – the announcement appeared to be timed to coincide with the holiday weekend – and the central bank of Cyprus is now going to impose a freeze on electronic transfers in the banking system until the “tax” is withdrawn from each account.
This development in Cyprus is getting very little press in the US and other countries, but it will. A basic doubt has been raised about the sanctity of private property in the banking system anywhere in the world. You can be assured that savvy investors will be paying attention to this development. You should too.
Naked Capitalism is always worth checking out when it comes to derivatives. She did some real time observations here, but usually there are so many outrages in a 3+ hour Senate hearing it's hard to cover them all. She caught the testimony where CIO was stonewalling and lying to the OCC.
We covered the abuses of J-1 Visas in this article along with some citations from a couple of new studies blasting the never ending "worker shortage" claim.
It is 2013 and this started in 2008. If they had simply nationalized the banks per the Swedish solution or even Iceland, all of Europe would be humming economically by now. This makes no sense and perhaps you can explain why countries are even staying in the Eurozone. I thought the point was without the EU they would collapse, but in essence, haven't these economies already collapse?
Banks are just sucking the life out of nations and people with no end in sight in seems.
Demanding pensions be cut, layoffs, "austerity" all to pump up the banking system has been going on since 2009 and we see the results. Spain is decimated, Greece is in a permanent depression, overall the European GDP has tanked.
They never mention Sweden's banking crisis or what Iceland did as an option.
Why this story is so important to the United States, beyond ramifications on the global economy is this is a first. It crosses a line never crossed to just take private savings.
Sure, delaying robbery forced onto victims from people hundreds and thousands of miles away all depends on when a vote is taken to soothe the victims. The criminals are funny, not bright, but damn they are funny. I'm guessing any Cypriot politician that values his life and property will vote for his own neck and vote against this crime. After all, Merkel, or Bernanke, or Lagarde won't be the ones running from tens of thousands of robbed victims. Same goes for any politician from here on in. War has been declared from ivory towers, time for the pissed on populations to take a stand.
As expected, they are delaying the vote thinking this will blow over. They shut down the banks until Thursday. Way to go Eurozone, created a panic.
For the talking heads on TV from banks and big business and government, please, I'd love to hear how seizing people's money will help cure all of this scary "uncertainty." Because it seems this would be the exact opposite of creating certainty. In fact, the Euro collapsing under its own weight would be much more certain and calming then seizing people's money as a short-term fix for one country in one union. Not only does that create short-term panic across the EU and globe, but it also destroys the system long-term.
These fools may be paid/steal billions of dollars and run governments or companies, but that never gave them an edge in insight, intelligence, or ethics.
Like I said, if the IMF helped plan this and approve it, anyone in the IMF nations or within reach of a computer link to the IMF should be afraid. That's everyone in the EU, the US, Japan, and everyone else. Just look at who funds and controls the IMF and that's a whole lot of citizens that can have money stolen from them.
If our "democratic" governments planned this and allowed this, how can they be trusted at all? Shouldn't the WH and Congressmen, the US banking regulators, the EU, IMF, see the implications of these actions and see the threat it poses to global economies as people can't trust banks anywhere with their money. Of course they should, but stealing from regular citizens is good for them in the short-term, they don't care about the complete destruction of faith and trust these actions (along with every other act since the bailouts) have taken.
Act accordingly, if people have a dime in banks, time to consider how much can be kept safely in a bank that cooperates with governments like these. These criminal acts by unelected banksters will only hasten the demise of the system and force people to go local, stop relying and trusting big banks and governments, and demand justice for those that allowed these crimes.
In the future, there will be individuals and trades that were no doubt made based on these bailouts and inside information that will probably come to light. E.g., an IMF employee or bankster with a friend at the IMF trading on the secret bailout deal before it was made public. When that happens, no one should be surprised. They steal and they make money not only through the theft and national rape, but through insider information too. Criminals, one and all. But they are given immunity expressly by our governments. If 99% of the population standing outside a Cypriot politician's office is robbed, should he look out for the bankers in Germany or the US or his own citizens? The same anywhere in the world.
This is a historical rerun. During the '30s, the Germans used various forms of financial blackmail to soften up the Balkans for easy conquest.
First the Germans gradually pulled the 'little countries' into total dependence on German trade. German businessmen and trade reps would buy up huge quantities of wheat and other raw materials at very high prices, then - often but not always - would fail to pay the debt. This made the 'little countries' reluctant to displease Germany, because their farmers and businesses stood to lose huge amounts of (potential) money if Germany pulled out entirely.
Next, the Germans used currency manipulation to buy up industries and properties with little real expenditure.
By the time the real war started, those Balkan countries had little choice. Most of them would have preferred the Russian side, but Germany already owned their resources.
As expected the globe is waking up to this move and the latest is parliament will have a "long session". Seems they are delaying their timing in order to pass it and not have a revolution.
Why don't these countries stand up to the banks, just seize them nationalize them, declare bankruptcy on the debt similarly to Iceland.
Is not being in the EU that bad long term considering so many are being absolutely decimated? Who cannot say Spain is destroyed?
Since the news is moving fast we won't update this article until there is a major event.
This is key - the banksters and their puppets/cohorts in the EU, World Bank, IMF, national governments (e.g., the US Government) know exactly who will be hit and when because they formulate the plans themselves! The criminals actually meet, exchange emails, phone calls to plan out the crimes and call them bailouts. The terms of the bailouts are known to every individual in the IMF, EU, US Congress before we know, or Cypriots know, or Spanish know. So that's weeks or months beforehand that every 1%er in power and with friends in Goldman, JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, etc. knows which bank will be hit, which accounts will be seized, at how much, and everything else because they actually plan it or have friends and colleagues in on the planning. The poor average Joe on the street has no say in it, has no clue about the terms until he reads about it as his $ is seized against his will. So the banksters plan the crime so they aren't affected, probably make money off it by betting against the targeted banks and nations (banksters love betting on bad news they know about due to insider information), and then sit back and laugh. There are no doubt many, many trades that will show up showing certain banks and individuals were making money off this deal long before it was public.
Watch in the coming days and weeks as our government does and says nothing about this. Watch as Treasury, the White House, FDIC (which really should care about reassuring/lying to Americans and saying this could never happen here), the Fed, Senate Banking Committee, Commerce give their approval because they have no problem with it. The US is the biggest contributor to the IMF, so they helped plan this. They get $ from banksters like Goldman and have bankster alum running parts of the US Government before they return to bankster jobs, so they love these actions against the average person that enrich big banks. And watch as the media controlled by the big banks says nothing about this. CNN.com was running stories on local crimes and the only mention of Cyprus was in the business section saying Cyprus received a big bailout. Fox etc. will remain silent because rules and private property only matter when it's the big people, not little ones. Nope, the politicians and media will go along because they are part of it.
It's great, banksters do everything in their power to get rich through crimes and controlling governments, they do everything they can to avoid taxes (including leaving their own countries like John Paulson might be doing), and then when governments are placed under conditions they can't afford by banksters, the banksters plan thefts of other people's money. And they even profit from those thefts beforehand because they negotiate the terms and have all the inside information to trade on long before it's public. It's so obvious, but no one in power cares or will do anything because they are the criminals themselves. Robespierre, anyone? Does someone have Google Maps for Versailles?
They delayed the vote until Monday, here. Question is if it is not law can people withdraw their money? I doubt it, but they are being strong armed by the IMF, if they had any guts they would nationalize the banks, wipe out the debts through whatever bankruptcy process they have, similar to Sweden.
All notice how Iceland said screw you Europe and they have recovered their economy.
Imagine what would happen if they seized the Cayman Island bank accounts? Probably one of the most well known tax havens in the world? Corporations would take over since that's primarily their money. Regular people getting 10% of their money seized, is ok, freezing offshore accounts, not.
Two sets of rules, one for poor individuals and the other for the super rich and corporations.
Apples declined -0.6% for the month, it was "other fruits" which increased 6.5%. Lettuce 8.5%. See table 2.
The seasonal adjustment is more to smooth out winter effects where vegetables would be more expensive. It's more supply, demand and what grocer's are charging this month.
It's nothing to be alarmed about, eggs vary greatly month to month in prices. Apples are up 11.1% from a year ago and lettuce has increased 24.5% from a year ago.
A year ago change removes seasonality for the most part so yes, these two have increased in price at the grocery. Iceberg has been cheap forever and I noticed it has gone up over the last year.
There was a drought last year which may have effected prices but a drought is a disaster so really not just seasonality and would increase prices for a long time due to it's effects.
So, month to month variations on things like some foods is nothing to worry about, a year over year increase is real and seasonality is not the cause.
So, is having no faith in one's own government or the banking system paranoia now or straight-up reasonable? Honestly, when a national government looks out for supranational groups like the IMF and their people (i.e., Goldman Sachs and other bankers and individuals) at the price of legalized theft, why would anyone trust their own government to look out for them? No sane person in any nation that has ties to the IMF or can be hit by the IMF should feel their $ is safe in a bank. The banksters are helping sow the seeds of their own destruction. They are waking people up to the fact that governments don't represent their own citizens, that money the people busted their asses can be stolen to help international bankers, and the people have no say in it. In fact, if they speak up and try to prevent foreign governments from stopping the theft and abuse, their own governments will crush them and help foreign forces while labeling them "hippies" or "Commies" or "lazy and uneducated." Protecting one's own money and nation are now denigrated and labeled by international criminals, how twisted. The Germans originally wanted 40% of their money? Man, that's bold.
No sense in looking to their governments for help, no faith or trust in governments, public servants, corporations, or banks, and honesty and hard work and ethics are treated like crap while crime and theft are now international policies that people have no say in - yeah, this will end badly very soon for those pushing this criminal agenda. This isn't just Cyprus, or Greece, this can happen anywhere across the globe. Just remember who and what were responsible so they don't escape trials for these crimes. Sure, bust ass in jobs that can cripple you, beg for low-wage jobs from corporations, and save scraps so that one day the same people meeting in beautiful vacation spots planning these actions that never faced hardship can laugh at the peasants and homeless as they literally steal people's money - how's that for justice and democracy?
If there aren't nationalistic groups across the globe demanding an end to the EU (or at least withdrawal), IMF, etc. and an end to enriching Goldman Sachs alum and others like them at the expense of 99% of the global population, it would be shocking. People have nothing left to lose (except whatever the IMF and EU allow them to keep, apparently). Theft, bailouts, destroying the international financial system, protection from criminal prosecutions in the past, present, and future (here and abroad), so who wants this to continue?
the food index increase was attributed in the release to a sharp increase in the fruits and vegetables index, which was up 1.4% on a seasonally adjusted basis but virtually unchanged for the month according to the unadjusted index, which rose from 293.714 to 293.742...
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.t01.htm
so did the price of fresh produce really go up month over month if the only change was in the seasonal adjustment to the price, but not at the grocers?
I agree, the precedent is incredible and if they had just nationalized the banks, wiped out the debt, used bankruptcy this wouldn't even be happening.
With Congress being absolutely insane and if anyone saw Ryan's "budget" I hope there is no doubt of the absolute ineptitude that makes Obama not look like the corporate corrupt disaster he and the Democrats are, it's hard to write.
We're talking until we are blue in the face against governments selling out the people, come hell or high water and damn the consequences.
I believe Cyprus had a deposit insurance program - one article said it was set at Euro 100,000 and under. Theoretically, therefore, all deposits at this level should be guaranteed by the government against bank failure. All amounts above this level are subject to bankruptcy proceedings and loss of capital. The bailout money should have been used to support the deposit guarantee fund so that a bank run is avoided and the average citizen is protected. Larger depositors should have known of the risks, just as in any other developed country people are regularly reminded that deposits over a certain size could be at risk of loss.
Why do governments hesitate to use the bankruptcy courts for insolvent banks? I understand the systemic risk arguments, but what is going on in Cyprus invites a far worse problem - bank runs in multiple countries, ultimately bringing about the very systemic crisis that was hoped to be avoided.
This action brings about an overall crisis of confidence in the entire global banking system. The US is not immune from the questions that will be in people's minds. Monday should see some fierce demand for gold, unless the central banks are able to suppress the price somehow. Even gold is a suspect investment these days. A paper purchase of a gold ETF is only as good as the balance sheet of the bank issuing and managing the ETF. Gold certificates, attesting to your ownership of physical gold in a bank vault, have been proven in the MF Global collapse to be worthless. The bankruptcy trustee can simply confiscate the gold for the benefit of the other creditors. Physical gold itself is relatively difficult to get. The US Mint ran out of its 2013 gold coins in the first week of January, and this has been happening for several years now. Even though investors will want to buy gold, there is no easy way to get gold that you can actually count on in physical form in times of crisis.
Land and commodity speculation may be revived, as long as people can hold on to something physical, fungible, and easily sold if necessary. Not many commodities qualify. I suppose the US dollar will also be subject to a buying frenzy as the last safe currency with liquidity (it's hard to get Swiss francs or Singapore dollars, for example - two other favorite safe havens). Investors are running out of choices, and how many will want to keep throwing money into the stock market when the market is dominated by financial names that are now subject to bank runs?
That's why this looks like the next leg of the crisis. The IMF and the EU/European Central Bank have labeled the entire banking industry as an untrustworthy recipient of your money, but there are few alternatives left short of putting paper notes under your mattress. We seem to be devolving into a barter economy ultimately, as safe fiat money dies out.
They seized private accounts of regular people. The first video above gives the percentages and there is some bogus claims that the Russians are getting hit, it's their accounts, offshored in Cyprus banks. Not true, the majority are just regular citizens saving up for retirement.
I agree with you this is an amazing story, we're not having governments socialize industry or even communist seizing private sector and making them part of the state here, we're in reverse! The private banking sector, per the IMF/EU Commission/ECB is seizing private assets to hand over to private banking.
Pay Attention! The EU and IMF confiscate private deposits
By Numerian, on March 16th, 2013
The next stage of the global financial collapse has now arrived.
In an announcement this weekend, the EU and the IMF have come to the rescue of Cyprus, at the request of the government, by offering Euro 10 billion in aid, in exchange for which the Cyprus government will impose a “one-off tax” on all private deposits in Cyprus banks. Depositors with Euro 100,000 or less in a bank account will be assessed a 6.75% tax, and deposits over this amount will be taxed at a rate of 9.9%
However politely this is described in press releases, this is nothing more than a confiscation of private property from people who did no wrong. The Cyprus banks prior to the 2008 financial collapse played a game similar to the Iceland banks – offering lavish interest rates on deposits to attract hot money, and investing the money in a real estate bubble that has now collapsed and crippled the banks. Most of the money came from Russian business interests.
Iceland chose a different tact in dealing with its crisis. It essentially stiffed the IMF and the governments of the UK and The Netherlands, which were the source of hot money for Icelandic banks and which fully expected the Icelandic government to cover the losses. The government refused, it allowed the banks to go under, it placed the losses on the the bank shareholders and bondholders, and it jailed the top bankers involved in the debacle. Iceland’s economy took a severe hit, but the pain was relatively short term and the economy has recovered nicely.
Elsewhere in Europe and the US, governments have chosen to protect bank management, bank shareholders, and bank bondholders, arguing that a “systemic crisis” will result if the banks are allowed to fail. The total deposits in the banking system of Cyprus account for less than 1% of total EU deposits, but nonetheless the EU is now arguing that a systemic crisis will engulf Europe if any bank is allowed to go under.
What is likely to happen after this decision is a systemic crisis of a different nature – bank runs throughout all the periphery countries, such as Spain and Italy, which have also asked for EU and IMF help for their banking industries. The citizens of Cyprus rushed to the ATM machines Saturday evening when this announcement hit the news wires, but the ATMs quickly ran out of cash. Cyprus is on holiday Monday – the announcement appeared to be timed to coincide with the holiday weekend – and the central bank of Cyprus is now going to impose a freeze on electronic transfers in the banking system until the “tax” is withdrawn from each account.
This development in Cyprus is getting very little press in the US and other countries, but it will. A basic doubt has been raised about the sanctity of private property in the banking system anywhere in the world. You can be assured that savvy investors will be paying attention to this development. You should too.
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