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Out of Ideas, Governments Try a Bank Heist
Townhall.com ^ | March 19, 2013 | John Ransom

Posted on 03/18/2013 10:33:20 PM PDT by Kaslin

During the Great Depression criminals like Bonnie and Clyde, Willie Sutton, Pretty Boy Floyd, John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson robbed banks. They attained some degree of folk hero status by sticking it to banks that some felt were responsible for the Depression era misery. 

With liberal ideas firmly in the saddle, civilizing us, so to speak, we have come a long way from those dreary days. No longer would we applaud such criminals.

Instead, today, we send them to Congress, or parliament, or the legislature, where governments try to achieve folk hero status by robbing banks and depositors alike.

In the 1930s the robbers justified their acts by saying no real people were hurt, just the banks and the insurance plan that covered the depositors.

Governments today have no need of that kind of logic. They get to hurt whomever they wish because, well… they’re the government.

Stick ‘em, up.   

May these governments all meet the same fate of the bank robbers of the 1930s. 

The current heist under way, disguised as a public service measure, proposes to “tax”- steal would be a better word- cash deposits in banks in order to raise about $6 billion euros to bailout...the government in Cyprus. It’s kind of a reverse TARP, which penalizes people who have saved in proportion to how responsible they have been. The money is needed in order to save the governments of Cyprus and the European Union. And the more you have saved, the worse off you’ll be.

As of now, no deposits, no matter how small, will be free from confiscation if the measure passes; no one will be Too-Small-to-Tax.          

And make no mistake about it: The bank “tax” that the European Union is imposing on Cyprus isn’t a tax at all. It’s seizure of property without due process in order for politicians to save a system for which someone should go to jail.

This ladies and gentlemen is what Hope and Change! gets you eventually.

Just at a time when the European political and banking system is unraveling, Obama is proposing that we closely model Europe.

Tax the rich, certainly. But make sure you tax everyone else too.    

“On Sunday, a source close to the consultations,” reports Reuters, say that “authorities were hoping to cut the tax to 3.0 percent from 6.7 percent for deposits under 100,000 euros. The rate for deposits above that would then be jacked up to 12.5 percent from 9.9 percent.”

But all is well says the EU.

It’s just a tiny theft in comparison. No big deal.

“Brussels has emphasized that the measure is a one-off for a country that accounts for just 0.2 percent of European output,” Reuters continues.

Hurray for the 0.2 Percent! We can make THEM pay.

With Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland and other financial systems teetering, however, confidence in the European banking system- really the world banking system- could be and should be shaken to the core. 

If this goes through it will give food for thought to other governments that seem to be ambivalent about the 0.2 Percent.

And yes, that’s Obama that I’m looking at.

Even New York Times Columnist Paul Krugman is saying that there is no better way to shake confidence in the banking system.

“It's as if the Europeans are holding up a neon sign, written in Greek and Italian, saying 'Time to stage a run on your banks!'" Krugman wrote in his column at the Times.

When they write a history of the times we live in, I’m guessing the working title will be: The Age of the Bad Ideas. Politicians, policy-makers and the public have struggled to squarely address the fact that no matter how hard you try, you can not make 2+2= $4 trillion.  

And someone has to pay the difference.

In Cyprus, they’ve come up with a great idea of who that “someone” is.

“Investors were responding to the unprecedented decision by eurozone leaders,” writes Euronews.com “to partly fund a bank bailout for Cyprus with money from savers’ accounts. Account holders in Cyprus have been appalled and many tried throughout the weekend to withdraw as much money as possible from their banks. There are fears that similar panic could spread to other eurozone countries.”

Maybe not just the Eurozone either.

With tussles over the debt, social spending, deficits and taxes turning into a revolutionary struggle over what government should and should not do, it’s just a matter of time before some Democrat begins to advocate in earnest a Cypriot solution to our spending troubles.

Do you really think Obama won’t consider it?

Why bank deposits?

Because the Democrats say we need more money.

And in the words of Depression-era bank robber Willie Sutton: “That’s where the money is.”


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Germany; Israel; Russia; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: cyprus; europeanunion; germany; greece; ireland; israel; italy; portugal; russia; spain; turkey; unitedkingdom
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To: goldstategop

Back in the EU
Back in the EU
Back in the EUSSR...


21 posted on 03/19/2013 4:09:39 AM PDT by Sir Francis Dashwood ("Arjuna, why have you have dropped your bow???")
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To: goldstategop
Europe imports Islamic invaders to provide workers for their usury in failing socialist public pension schemes because Europeans have become fat, faggoty and lazy. Until the stupid white people wake up and realize third world filth are outbreeding them and feeding off of their lazy socialist, multicultural political correctness, nothing will change for the better. They will have fun playing "spread the other cheek" for their new Islamic masters.
22 posted on 03/19/2013 4:11:44 AM PDT by Sir Francis Dashwood ("Arjuna, why have you have dropped your bow???")
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To: goldstategop
Europe imports Islamic invaders to provide workers for their usury in failing socialist public pension schemes because Europeans have become fat, faggoty and lazy.

Until the stupid white people wake up and realize third world filth are outbreeding them and feeding off of their lazy socialist, multicultural political correctness, nothing will change for the better.

They will have fun playing "spread the other cheek" for their new Islamic masters.

23 posted on 03/19/2013 4:12:24 AM PDT by Sir Francis Dashwood ("Arjuna, why have you have dropped your bow???")
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To: CIB-173RDABN

“When you rob Peter to pay Paul, eventually Peter quits working and saving.”

There are those who believe that “robbing Peter to pay Paul” is nothing but right-wing, evil, heartless rhetoric that has no basis in fact, economics and reality be darned.

The only time that reality will come knocking is when the forces of “social justice” learn the goose step and the lefties stare in wide-eyed surprise at the monster they’ve created.

IMHO


24 posted on 03/19/2013 4:27:42 AM PDT by ripley
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To: Kaslin

Libs are already eyeing our 401k and other retirementment accounts to “seize” and then “re-allocate”. Perhaps the bank seizures will be offered up as part of a ‘faustian choice”...that is the retirement accounts verses our nation’s bank accounts.


25 posted on 03/19/2013 4:28:39 AM PDT by mdmathis6 (Rest assured, Mankind is loved....both completely and severely!)
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To: Kaslin

Ironically this “plan” is being directed by by the grim hard-looking socialista Christine LagGarde, who enjoys a tax-free salary as head of the IMF


26 posted on 03/19/2013 4:47:52 AM PDT by silverleaf (Age Takes a Toll: Please Have Exact Change)
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To: silverleaf

Why does this not surprise me. Hypocrites all around


27 posted on 03/19/2013 4:54:19 AM PDT by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
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To: Terry Mross

We have had deficit spending from almost all Administrations and Congress for at least the last 100 years and this is another scalping as it is financed by printing dollars and devaluing the money by FRS/fractional banking inflation.


28 posted on 03/19/2013 5:08:13 AM PDT by iopscusa (El Vaquero. (SC Lowcountry Cowboy))
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To: goldstategop

our government has been doing this for decades, stealing our savings by devaluing the dollar.


29 posted on 03/19/2013 5:32:29 AM PDT by Daveinyork (."Trusting government with power and money is like trusting teenaged boys with whiskey and car keys,)
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To: GeronL
This is nothing but a death spiral, there is no light at the end of the tunnel, the tunnel will have a dead end and a cave in.

Death spirals do not happen in economics. For every action and situation, economic forces work so as to find a new equilibrium. Now, mind you, many folk may not LIKE that new equilibrium point, but the system will find a new balance point... IF it is allowed to. We do get death spirals, but only when governments impose idiotic rules and benchmarks that prevent the natural economic forces from doing their job. The problem, as is almost always the truth, is the government intervention, not the economics.

30 posted on 03/19/2013 5:43:46 AM PDT by Teacher317 ('Tis time to fear when tyrants seem to kiss.)
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To: Teacher317

these liberal, socialist actions are the death spiral


31 posted on 03/19/2013 5:57:01 AM PDT by GeronL (http://asspos.blogspot.com)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...

Thanks Kaslin. Oh, and screw our enemy Russia and the Russians living in Cyprus.
32 posted on 03/19/2013 5:09:20 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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