Bank runs, bank holiday & 10pct bailout tax on deposits in Cyprus

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I have no idea why though. The amount of money involved is peanuts in the grand scheme of things.

It's not the money. It's who controls the Eastern Mediterranean. Russia has coveted Cyprus for decades, and fought several wars with that endpoint in mind. Europe has Cyprus by the balls and won't let go for the same reason. In the end Europe will retain control for several reasons.

Germany attacks Russia – run for the hills
 
Each passing hour, and with each Cypriot withdraw of cash from ATM's across the island, the banks needs grow. On Tuesday, it goes exponential. The EU knows that there is no stopping the flow of money and the whole idea of confiscation only served to kill all faith in the monetary union. This test balloon was a terrible idea and may well have been the straw to break the EU camels back.

I wonder who had the genius idea in the first place? "Hey, I know what we could do, let's just expropriate all the cash deposits. They're mostly Russian anyway, I don't think they'll mind". "After all, it's in the interests of the people, right"?

On what planet did someone think this was a good idea?
 
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A lot happened over the weekend (or so it seems).

Best I can tell, a deal* is being forced upon the Cypriot people (they don't get a vote on the matter apparently) that will include theft on deposits greater than 100K Euros.


http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldn...Roberts_-_Cyprus_May_Dwarf_2008_Collapse.html


*the deal as reported by Reuters:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/25/us-eurozone-cyprus-text-idUSBRE92O02920130325
 
Bloomberg reports:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...entative-deal-to-avert-default-euro-exit.html
 

http://rt.com/business/bank-cyprus-cut-30-percent-deposits-789/
 
There is Russian blood in the streets (figuratively), and Euro bankers are looking to "buy":
http://gata.org/node/12385
 
Stealing money from depositors in offshore havens appears to be such good business that Russia is now thinking about jumping into it with up to $323B investment:
http://rt.com/business/russia-offshore-medvedev-601/

"If you build it, he the suckers will come."

Edit: Bwahahahaa....


http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/25/us-eurozone-cyprus-russia-idUSBRE92O09D20130325

* note the description of bank customers as "Russian investors" and not "Russian bank customers". The shift mentioned in the KWN article mentioned in post #124 above is already evident.
 
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Things in bold above, are *NOT* true, in the current state of banking industry, as far as I know. Read the fine prints in your banking account contract. Once you deposit the money, IT IS NOT YOUR MONEY ANYMORE, you are effectively a lender to the bank. How do you guys think otherwise, banks would be able to loan this money further, if it belongs to someone else, not them? IT is only one of the (many) missconceptions, that people in today's world ASSUME are true, but in reality, it is not true. Of course, nobody will be shouting from the rooftops, that it is the case, and try to make people aware of it, but I think, that in case of Cyprus, SHTF, and that just comes into spotlight - but it is (long) the case, not some ad-hoc "redefining". You are not depositing your moneyu in the bank, you are lending it to the bank, and bank has a contractual obligation to pay it back to you, at some stage, on request - but it is not YOUR money, technically.

I am not saying that it is right, I am simply saying, it is the case.

Bottom line?

buy physical :rotflmbo:
 
I agree with Bushi. Get your cash in to a safe place and do not let accounts exceed the quantities that are insured by the FDIC. Then, work out how to get out completely from this predatory system.
 
Agree with you bushi, but Joe Sixpack doesn't understand that, IMO. It's good to highlight the issue and educate peeps.
 
Not sure when this letter/email was dated, but ...
http://www.silverdoctors.com/a-letter-from-cyprus-economy-shutting-down-going-cash-only/
 
I think Cyprus is already regretting their decision to steal depositors money. The public will react and do so swiftly. The banks will collapse immediately upon reopening, if indeed they ever reopen. It doesn't matter if they limit withdraws to 100 euro per day, because eventually the people will drain the banks at that rate. It may take longer, but it will happen. I further suspect that there will be scandals involving government officials being allowed to move their money in large chunks, ahead of 'ordinary depositors'. the shit is only just beginning to hit the fan in Cyprus, and the blow by will land squarely in the faces of Spanish and Italian depositors faces.

It looks like we're 'gonna need more popcorn.
 


http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-...ready-quietly-withdrawn-all-their-cash-cyprus


I was wondering why the media keeps saying that the death of Boris Berezovsky removes a stumbling block to UK/Russian relations and that things should be a lot more positive from now on.

Meanwhile now I'm pretty sure a big part of the reason we will have better relations in future is because we let them get their money out of Cyprus last week.
 

Back on March 18, ThomsonReuters published this "bail-in calculator":

http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/BV/Cyprus.html

Slide the "tax on deposits under 100K Euros" to 0% and it shows a requisite tax/theft of 15.26% on accounts over that amount. Presumably, this would be applied evenly across the two banks in question.

News reports are saying that the theft from one bank (on accounts over 100K Euros) will be anywhere from 25% to 40%. And the theft from the other bank, which will be dissolved, will likely be 100% on accounts over 100K Euros. Assuming the total amount they are trying to steal didn't change, the numbers are indicating that the pool of available money in the >100K accounts shrunk considerably.
 
Cyprus' capital controls illegal?
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/03/you-have-to-destroy-maastricht-treaty.html
 

Video: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-28/buchheit-cyprus-situation-spiralling-down

So, Medvedev was right?

Also, it appears that Cypriot banks had record outflows all through January and February before this confiscation deal penetrated the news media here in the USA. Comment in ZH discussion shows British media were warning about it in February:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-...tflows-soared-three-year-high#comment-3384807

I have to think that the simple math from ThompsonReuters' calculator may have been very optimistic on how much money Cypriot banks had when the original deal was being debated in Cyprus' parliament.
 
PMBug,
The truth of it is that the whole thing is so fluid right now that they can never really know where exactly these banks stand. At this point, I suspect that the quantity of money coming in as deposits approaches zero, while the amounts being withdrawn are shooting skyward. I further suspect that ALL monies above the 100k threshold will be taken, but it remains to be seen. It's going to be a while before the smoke clears on this one.
 
So, Medvedev was right?

Also, it appears that Cypriot banks had record outflows all through January and February before this confiscation deal penetrated the news media here in the USA.

What I see here is a deal behind the curtains between Russia and Germany. Germany wants control of Cyprus, just as she wanted and got control of the Balkans and Greece. However, with Cyprus there was a minor problem - Russia.

Germany cannot hit Russia headon because Russia controls Germany via the Baltic pipeline. So, it appears that with major Russian money in Cyprus, the only option was for a new Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement between the two. With the massive withdrawal of Russian funds from Cyprus, it sure appears that the two had an agreement beforehand. More confirmation is that Russia did NOTHING except put on a show when they could have and would have shut down the Baltic pipeline if Russian funds were really at risk just like they shut down the Ukrainian pipelines several years ago to squash Western leaning of Ukraine.

So, it appears to me that

1) Germany wanted control of Cyprus for whatever reason, probably because of its strategic value.
2) Russian money was a major obstacle.
3) So the two made a deal.
4) Russia backs out with little or no loss of either money or face.
5) Germany gets to tighten the screws with no backlash from a major player.
6) Russia may get access to a naval port on Cyprus to replace Russia's Syrian port presence in the Mediterranean.

If this is true, get prepared. This is the same kind of deal the two did immediately before both World Wars.
 

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-...no-future-under-troika-calls-iceland-solution
 
I been warning about this 18 months ago on RPF ( www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.ph...old-to-kick-the-can-down-the-road-for-a-while ), now it's beginning. Governments are selling gold to kick the can down the road:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-...ll-€400-million-gold-finance-part-its-bailout
 
AEP on the Cyprus gold grab:
More: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/financ...dles-as-creditors-seize-cyprus-gold-reserves/
 

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/financ...rom-bad-to-worse-by-the-day-so-does-portugal/

Anyone think Cyprus or Portugal will have any gold left after all is said and done?
 
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/financ...rom-bad-to-worse-by-the-day-so-does-portugal/

Anyone think Cyprus or Portugal will have any gold left after all is said and done?

If there are smart they will dump the Euro TODAY and bite the bullet while there is still a chance to remain a sovereign country. However, that won't happen. Why? Because if they were smart, they would have NEVER jettisoned their old currencies in favor of a currency (The Euro) that from its inception was DESIGNED TO LOOT THE TREASURIES of the weaker nations in the Euro world.

Where is this gold going? To Germany. They are financing the debt. Once the debt becomes impossible to repay, then they are demanding the gold as "collateral" for the debt knowing that the debtor cannot ever redeem that collateral.

Once the Euro has served its purpose (to LOOT the treasuries of Europe), the Euro will be abandoned and a new currency (a gold-backed Mark?) will be established by Germany and all of Europe will be forced to use it since no one else will have any gold to re-establish their own currencies. Until all of the treasuries of the Euro nations have been looted, Germany cannot re-establish a new "Mark" because of potential competition by other members of the Euro community.

Britain is not a member of this Euro community which means that Britain's treasury cannot be looted in this manner. It also means that sooner or later Britain must leave the EU because they will be the only other major EU nation besides Germany with gold to fund a currency, putting them at loggerheads with each other.
 
Oops, possible game changer:
http://ransquawk.com/headlines/cyprus-parliament-will-have-to-vote-on-bailout-deal-16-04-2013
 
The market (and financial media) appear to ignore a lot of important stories.
 
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