[rarestia]

I’m so conflicted. Do I cease all contributions to my 401(k) and take the money out? Do I leave the money in there? Do I dump all of my cash into ammo and food? Do I stop paying my mortgage? I wish my grandparents were alive to give me some advice on this.

[GeronL]

Countries around the world are salivating, hoping this happens without much trouble.

I bet the MSM will treat this as no big deal, probably not even newsworthy. That will be the sign that it may be coming here.

[Truth29]

I wonder how the Cypriot legislators will respond to a few calls from Russian oligarchs explaining what will happen to them and their families if the Russian money is not unfrozen expeditiously?

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Cyprus needs to decorate a few lampposts.

That will get the message across.

[Uncle Miltie]

"How would you feel if something like this happened where you live?"

I'd just put on some cammo and go hunting.

[Oatka]

First Bank of Sealy or Serta come to mind, as well as Mason jar accounts.

If anybody said that these idiot politicians would risk a world wide run on banks by pulling a stunt like this, they would have been hooted off the Internet.

For those who say “It can’t happen here”, think “Yes we can!”

[meatloaf]

If I worked for the IMF, I’d carry an antidote for polonium poisoning as if that would do any good.

[Procyon]

This is hysterical. The haircut is equivalent to one year’s interest. Insured deposits lay 4 to 6 percent. In order to attract all that Russian money, Cyprus banks were offering up to 11% per annul on uninsured jumbo deposits of EUR100,000. We’re so used Stateside to bank deposits paying sub 1 percent that we think this action is near confiscatory.

[InterceptPoint]

Actually, confiscation would be quite OK as a payback for electing gangsters to run your government year after year after year, never learning that they are stealing you blind.

Unfortunately, at least in this country, those doing the electing are generally not those doing the paying the penalty so it turns out to be unfair squared.

Actually I will not be surprised to see them back off on Cyprus. If they don't I cannot see why anyone would put their money in a Cyprus bank. Better to buy gold or jewels and hide them in your house. Foolish to think that this is a one-shot deal. They'll be back next year or the year after for another 10%.

[andyk]

10%? That’s okay, it would never be more than that. We owe it to the government.

[NTHockey]

When it happens here, it won’t be 10%. It will be 100%. And the riots will start.

[DakotaGator]

The banksters have sent a very clear message. When the chips are down, they are going to come after YOUR money.

No. The banskers have sent an even clearer message; "Once in the bank, it is no longer YOUR money. It is THEIR money.

I remind everyone, the US Federal Reserve System is owned and controlled by banks, not the US Government. They are behind moving us to fiat currency. They are behind devaluing fiat currency to destroy our wealth.

Everyone who can should be pulling all of their money out of "banks" and converting it into real wealth. What that real wealth is depends on what you can do. But here's the experience; those who prospered during the Great Depression had real disposable wealth, and they used it to purchase wealth producing properties at bargain basement prices.

This engineered cycle is nothing new. It ends in financial system collapse and war. Governments are guilty of abetting it. But banks engineer it. And it's not so much a conspiracy as the nature of the banking beast!

[familyop]

"If this "bank robbery" goes well, it will only be a matter of time before depositors in nations such as Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal are asked to take "haircuts" as well."

The author should get more educated. Haircuts have already been done, and in Greece, at least, haircuts (real repudiations/confiscations) much larger than the taxes in Cyprus. I wouldn't be surprised, if the same have already been done in Italy, Spain and/or Portugal. But news on the issue of bond collapses and defaults is sketchy, to put it mildly (maybe more shady).

A bond collapse here is being managed as a slow process and is bound to conclude more suddenly. Have fun. Enjoy the slide. More freedom on the other side for lack of regulatory monkey business against real production.

[Wurlitzer]

Unless bankers and politicians start dying yes they will get away with this and it will spread. What is to stop them?

[Wurlitzer]

If the world’s ruling elite keep squeezing us from so many directions we will see the value of lead far exceed the value of gold.