Free Republic

Cyrpus police outside of the parliament

Good morning and welcome back to the land of anarchy where contracts and guarantees don’t mean anything anymore. Over the weekend, as I’m sure you’ve already heard, Cyprus and the EU and the IMF (and the U.S. Treasury which is part of the official decision-making body at the IMF) all decided that it was in society’s best interests to confiscate the money in people’s checking and savings accounts. Not all of it, at least not yet.But as there’s a ton of confusion and misdirection about what this latest round of theft of private capital and descent into anarchy really is,...

In fact, U.S. stocks might be solidly in the green now if it weren’t for another development that bears watching: Weakness in financials. Monday's slide is also being attributed to Cyprus, which has revived fears of "contagion" emanating from Europe and the related counterparty risk faced by banks. But bank stocks were under pressure before the Cyprus "bail in" hit the headlines. Starting late Thursday, the financials had a really bad weekend when a Senate report found JPMorgan had misled regulators (and investors) in its disclosures surrounding the now infamous London Whale trade.

Sir Mervyn King once said it was not rational to start a bank run but rational to participate in one once it has started. The governor of the Bank of England was right, of course. On Saturday morning, the finance ministers of the eurozone may well have started a bank run. With the agreement on a depositor haircut for Cyprus – in all but name – the eurozone has effectively defaulted on a deposit insurance guarantee for bank deposits. That guarantee was given in 2008 after the collapse of Lehman Brothers. It consisted of a series of nationally co-ordinated guarantees....

Stock markets across Europe and Asia tumbled today as investors reacted to an unprecedented raid on bank accounts in Cyprus prompted by a £8.6billion bailout by the European Union. As the Cypriot parliament delayed a crucial vote on the measure for the second time, angry scenes erupted on the streets of the capital Nicosia. Protesters who stand to lose ten per cent of their savings stood outside the Parliament building holding anti-German banners which left doubt where they believe the blame lies for the latest crisis to envelope the eurozone. Meanwhile, many Britons who have moved to the Mediterranean island...

Cyprus --- officially the Republic of Cyprus --- is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria, Lebanon, northwest of Israel and north of Egypt.  I had to search Wikipedia for that information as I, like most of you, wasn't quite sure exactly where this island was.   This eurozone country, with population just north of one million, three-quarters of whom are Greek and most of the others Turkish, dominated the weekend financial news for those of us who were paying attention.  In a stunning shift from previous aid packages, EU...

Photos: protests in Nicosia • Crucial parliamentary vote delayed until Tuesday • Reports of a rethink on bank savings levy • Vladimir Putin: savings levy is unfair and dangerous • Midday: Markets claw back some losses

The Domino’s Are Falling: Europe Announces Stunning Bailout For Cyprus — Bank Depositors To Get Instant 10% Haircut Before Banks Reopen This Week! Biggest Bank Run In History Starts Monday!! Europe Does It Again: Cyprus Depositor Haircut “Bailout” Turns Into Saver “Panic”, Frozen Assets, Bank Runs, Broken ATMs http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-16/europe-does-it-again-cyprus-depositor-haircut-bailout-turns-saver-panic-bank-runs-br Cyprus bailout comes at a cost to bank depositors http://www.marketwatch.com/story/cyprus-bailout-comes-at-a-cost-to-bank-depositors-2013-03-16?link=MW_home_latest_news CYPRUS PRESIDENT: Nation Faces Total Financial Collapse And Euro Exit Without Bailout In the early hours of Saturday, Cyprus agreed to a “bailout” with the EU and IMF that is very controversial because it imposes an immediate one-time tax on everyone...

The European debt crisis was rumored to be over. But the recent warning shot from Cyprus indicates otherwise. Europe braced for renewed turmoil as outrage in Cyprus over an unprecedented levy on bank deposits threatened to derail the nation’s bailout and spark a new round in the debt crisis. Cyprus will impose a levy of 6.75 percent on deposits of less than 100,000 euros and 9.9 percent above that. The decision to impose losses on Cypriot depositors is the latest erosion of bondholder protection at European banks and an “ominous” sign of how bailouts are being handled, Barclays Plc said....

It's an outright theft, but since it's official government entities doing this, it's not called theft but bailout. The Cypriot government even calls it "a new beginning". (1984, anyone?) In exchange for the 10 billion euro bailout for the Cypriot banks and supposedly saving 8,000 jobs, the EU demanded that the Cypriot government confiscate 6.75 to 9.9% of deposits at the banks and exchange it with the bank "equity" (what kind of joke is this?), and that the interest on deposits be charged with 20 to 25% tax. These thefts are supposed to raise up to 7.5 billion euros. They...

Let me first (try to) give you a justification for the seizure of bank deposits in Cyprus. Everybody who knows any thing about Cyprus also knows that the domestic banks were a parking lot for Russian hot money. I wrote about this back in 2011 (Link). There are a gazillion other articles saying the same thing. That being the case, the seizure of some of the black Russian money as part of a bailout for Cyprus is not really a surprise. With dirty money flowing in, the stupid banks in Cyprus used the deposits to buy crappy assets like the...

Very few things give me nightmares… Yesterday’s event in Cyprus was one of them and the media is conspicuously silent. What do you get when you combine worldwide Marxist elitists, bankers and the media? A worldwide depression and a new dark age. The IMF (in case you are wondering who they are) is using Greece as a proving ground for the rest of us. It is a fascist Petri dish. They just implemented an across the board tax on all bank accounts over a holiday with no warning and no recourse. 9.9% if you have over 100,000 Euros in the...

ANALYST: The Cyprus Deal Could Be The 'Trigger' We Were Waiting For In Europe Matthew BoeslerMarch. 17, 2013, 10:41 AMStephen Z on Flickr On Thursday, Société Générale analysts made a prescient call on Europe. "It is far too early to dismiss euro area crisis as a key [market] driver," wrote SocGen's Vincent Chaigneau. "We fear another shockwave in the spring." As it turns out, they may not have had to wait very long. News this weekend that the ECB, EU, and IMF bailout of the Cypriot banking system will include an instant 10 percent "tax" on bank deposits before banks...

There's two bulls standing on top of a mountain. The younger one says to the older one: "Hey pop, let's say we run down there and f*** one of them cows". The older one says: "No son. Lets walk down and f*** 'em all".                           - Robert Duvall in ColorsThe world was shocked this weekend to learn that the European Union would fund the bailout of Cyprus by confiscating the assets of ordinary bank account holders.  Core Europeans and Americans no doubt comforted themselves that such a...

Cyprus's parliament on Sunday postponed an emergency session to discuss a levy on bank savings imposed to partially fund an international bailout needed to stave off bankruptcy. All meetings were postponed until Monday, the Cyprus News Agency reported. Earlier, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades postponed an informal meeting of lawmakers called for Sunday morning. Several parties in the 56-member chamber, where no party has an absolute majority, were meeting on Sunday morning to formulate positions over the bank levy. Three parties have already said they will not back the plan.

Yes, it is every bit as bad as it sounds, and worse. Word is that the initial plan was for a 40% (!!!!) levy confiscation of Cypriot bank accounts. They settled for a MERE 6.75% and 9.9% dual-layered compromise. Yeah, you all need to do what I have been doing for the last several months and live within spitting distance of being overdrawn in your bank accounts. In other words, keep the BARE MINIMUM in the bank and feed your account just enough to cover the bills. As soon as money comes in, get it the heck out of there....

Shocking! It is difficult to describe the weekend bailout package to Cyprus in any other way. The confiscation of 6.75 percent of small depositors' money and 9.9 percent of big depositors' funds is without precedence that I can think of in a supposedly civilised and democratic society. But maybe the European Union (EU) is no longer a civilised democracy? The consequences are unpredictable, but we are clearly looking at a significant paradigm shift. This is a breach of fundamental property rights, dictated to a small country by foreign powers and it must make every bank depositor in Europe shiver. if...

You can be forgiven for thinking that you don't need to give a hoot about what's going on in Cyprus this weekend. After all, it's just a little island somewhere in the Mediterranean. But what's going on in Cyprus could actually matter--not just to the rest of Europe, but to the rest of the world. Here's the short version of what's happening: Cyprus's banks, like many banks in Europe, are bankrupt. Cyprus went to the Eurozone to get a bailout, the same way Ireland, Greece, and other European countries have. The Eurozone powers-that-be gave Cyprus a bailout--but with a startling...

The Eurogroup reached on Friday night an unprecedented decision for bailing out Cyprus that dictates a haircut on all bank accounts on the island’s banks with immediate effect, while cash withdrawals are not allowed for the time being, generating unrest. Along with loans adding up to 10 billion euros from the European Support Mechanism, Cyprus will have to find another 7-7.5 billion euros from privatizations and from a 6.75 percent one-off haircut on all bank accounts with a balance up to 100,000 euros, rising to 9.9 percent on accounts exceeding 100,000 euros. Already bank customers are gathering outside major and...

People with Cyprus bank accounts will lose up to 10% of their savings as the price of a 10 billion euro (£8.6 billion) rescue package for the cash-strapped country from its European partners and the International Monetary Fund. The bailout was agreed early on Saturday in a bid to keep the island nation from a bankruptcy that could rekindle the region’s debt crisis. But in a major departure from established policies, the package also includes a one-off levy on the money held in bank accounts in Cyprus. Analysts have warned that making depositors take a hit threatens to undermine investors’...