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The madness of the bailout in Cyprus

maximise.dk

21–30 of 252 posts

Re: The madness of the bailout in Cyprus

#21
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like 90% of the past 5 years, this isn't a banking problem, it's a government problem. The IMF can suggest ways to fund a bail out, but the government has to accept it. Confiscating your citizens money is a horrible precedent.

What is any tax but confiscation?

Usually, it's not retroactive.

Re: The madness of the bailout in Cyprus

#22

Funny that it's targeting only bank accounts and completely ignoring all other liquid assets. By which I mean: Holy shit, if this isn't targeted directly at middle class and lower households and small businesses, I don't know what would be. Also, these guys have all got to be huffing paint if they think a run on the banks won't be a direct result EVEN AFTER THE MONEY IS GONE.

Actually the Russian mafia supposedly has a lot of money in the tax haven that is Cyprus. (Source (in Danish): http://www.dr.dk/Nyheder/Udland/2013/03/16/100422.htm)

Re: The madness of the bailout in Cyprus

#23

It's not just the banks. Cyprus has a huge public debt[1]. The measure is also not the first of its kind in the EU - Italy did it in 1992 to cover a financial emergency. They took "only" 0.6% from all bank accounts back then. [1] http://www.cyprus-mail.com/cyprus/highest-annual-increase-go...

According to wikipedia, Cyprus' public debt is less than Greece's, Italy's, USA's, Canada's, Germany's, and many others.

Re: The madness of the bailout in Cyprus

#24
post #5

The bank run was an entirely predictable result. And one which the courts may soon have to untangle. I too expect that capital will move from weaker banks into stronger ones and that will result in a liquidity crisis. Along one path the European Union dissolves, and along another path nation-state sovereignty dissolves. Either way it seems pretty clear that countries with larger economies don't seem to be particularl…

Why would the EU dissolve if the Euro collapsed? Only 17/27 countries in the EU are in the Eurozone. It would be significantly more complicated to dissolve the whole European Union and dealing with a political and legal mess that would ensue. Dissolving the Eurozone would be comparatively easy.

Also the concept that somehow "poorly run smaller economies" were draining the resources of the "larger economies" has no basis in reality. It doesn't take a lot of research to find out who benefited the most from the Euro. Hint: not any the "poorly run smaller economies".

Re: The madness of the bailout in Cyprus

#25

Funny that it's targeting only bank accounts and completely ignoring all other liquid assets. By which I mean: Holy shit, if this isn't targeted directly at middle class and lower households and small businesses, I don't know what would be. Also, these guys have all got to be huffing paint if they think a run on the banks won't be a direct result EVEN AFTER THE MONEY IS GONE.

We have:

- Stocks

- Derivatives of stocks

- Natural resources (oil/gold)

- Derivatives of natural resources

- Bonds

- State bonds

- Real estate

- Land (without a building)

- Undervalued company that owns all your stuff and you own the company (put that one in there, since it's a usual and practical way of owning real estate and more)

No, let me think. Let's just stick with people pensions. So much better.

Re: The madness of the bailout in Cyprus

#28
post #3

Expect this to happen all over Europe. In particular England. It has happened before and will happen again, until the fuckers in charge understand and learn. But no one would vote on the guy calling for budget cuts. Everyone likes the guy with the hand outs.

Greece has cut its budget on an order of ~20%. It hasn't helped them at all.

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/data/GRCGFCEQDSMEI_Max_...

Re: The madness of the bailout in Cyprus

#29
To quote the article: "This is why The IMF and the ECB has stepped in and bailed out the banks. Rumor has it that without the bailout Cyprus two largest banks would be bankrupt in a matter of days. A situation no economy can survive, especially not one with a disproportionally large banking sector."

I don't see the problem to be honest. We (I live in the Netherlands) are paying a lot of money to help them out, which is okay. But yeah we're asking the inhabitants of Cyprus for a sacrifice too. The 10% tax is a very crude way to implement this, but dire times need dire actions.

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