Cypress in Default

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Tango

Senior member
May 9, 2002
244
0
0
I would have thought that they would tax everything over the 100k so in your case they would take 40% of 1,000.

If not then it would be incredibly stupid which wouldn''t surprise me.

Of course the tax is progressive: in the case you are discussing the account holder would be taxed 40% of just $1,000.
 

Fern

Elite Member
Sep 30, 2003
26,907
173
106
Yesterday, we first reported on something very disturbing (at least to Cyprus' citizens): despite the closed banks (which will mostly reopen tomorrow, while the two biggest soon to be liquidated banks Laiki and BoC will be shuttered until Thursday) and the capital controls, the local financial system has been leaking cash. Lots and lots of cash.

Alas, we did not have much granularity or details on who or where these illegal transfers were conducted with. Today, courtesy of a follow up by Reuters, we do.

The result, at least for Europe, is quite scary because let's recall that the primary political purpose of destroying the Cyprus financial system was simply to punish and humiliate Russian billionaire oligarchs who held tens of billions in "unsecured" deposits with the island nation's two biggest banks.

As it turns out, these same oligrachs may have used the one week hiatus period of total chaos in the banking system to transfer the bulk of the cash they had deposited with one of the two main Cypriot banks, in the process making the whole punitive point of collapsing the Cyprus financial system entirely moot.

From Reuters:

While ordinary Cypriots queued at ATM machines to withdraw a few hundred euros as credit card transactions stopped, other depositors used an array of techniques to access their money.



No one knows exactly how much money has left Cyprus' banks, or where it has gone. The two banks at the centre of the crisis - Cyprus Popular Bank, also known as Laiki, and Bank of Cyprus - have units in London which remained open throughout the week and placed no limits on withdrawals. Bank of Cyprus also owns 80 percent of Russia's Uniastrum Bank, which put no restrictions on withdrawals in Russia. Russians were among Cypriot banks' largest depositors.

If true: Bwuhahahahaha

I suspect we'll find out if the rich Russians were able to somehow pull out their money because, if so, the tax raised on deposits will not rise to the level necessary to meet the requirements of the bailout deal.

Fern
 

DucatiMonster696

Diamond Member
Aug 13, 2009
4,269
1
71

Seriously I wouldn't doubt for a minute that the Russians (especially the mob who probably saw this coming or no doubt got word from their banking connections in Cyprus to pull out) did pull out money from these banks.

The truth of it will be revealed when these banks are allowed to open again and if they have enough to cover a run or if there are any dead bankers found later on as time passes.
 
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Darwin333

Lifer
Dec 11, 2006
19,946
2,328
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The issue is a more complex than just politicians or political parties being bought off. When governments around the world have grown their debts to such huge levels that a rise in interest rate payments alone would put a sovereign's solvency in danger you begin to understand that this is not so much an issue of politicians being bought off (even though many are and have been) but a understanding that if they down't play the game of moving from one economic bubble (induced via loose and easy monetary policies and interest rate manipulation, all of which emboldens risk taking in the marketplace which then allows for and induces the formation of these bubbles in the market place) to another they are toast.

However the issue as of late has grown so huge that today it is a world wide phenomena with industrialize nations who have a Faustian pact with central bankers and the banking industry to continue the distortions which prop up "Too big to fail" and economic bubbles which grow and grow to the point in which their implosion in one nation potentially can threaten other bubbles formed in other nations.

So in the end yes these guys wont go to jail until industrialize nations around the world decide to not play the game of debt building and money supply and interest rate manipulation with these central banks. Furthermore since the point of removing ourselves of the semi-gold standard in the 1970's to the end of the dollar hegemony (where we in the 80's-90's pledge to keep the value of the dollar stable) around 2000 these issues have only grown in scale and magnitude. Notice though how even in this crisis investors and savers all seek stability and safety which should demonstrate that a sound monetary policy in general is the wisest long term course for any nation rather then playing the interest rate and money printing game to fuel the debt ball because eventually that is a loosing proposition.

I fail to see how anything you said prevents us from enforcing the rule of existing black letter law on private individuals and companies. If a subset of our society does not have to follow the law why do you and I have to follow it?

This isn't the first banking crisis we have had and the last one we put a metric fuckton of banksters in jail so I am not buying the "but we need THOSE SPECIFIC ASSHOLES RUNNING (or used to be running) the show". Throw the fuckers that committed crimes in jail and let new assholes take their place. Call it economic development...
 

Darwin333

Lifer
Dec 11, 2006
19,946
2,328
126
If true: Bwuhahahahaha

I suspect we'll find out if the rich Russians were able to somehow pull out their money because, if so, the tax raised on deposits will not rise to the level necessary to meet the requirements of the bailout deal.

Fern

Politically its like a 1000 times worse. This was always an action that was billed as "punish those fucking ruskies but we sorta kinda gotta be fair". If the Ruskies got a significant portion of their money out before the tax then the entire reason they sold the public goes out the window.
 

Darwin333

Lifer
Dec 11, 2006
19,946
2,328
126
Maybe if they didn't have so much big government and these idiotic social programs then they wouldn't have this problem. Teaches a lesson to the idiots who want big government.

Big government didn't get them into this mess but it is attempting (very badly imho) to get them out of the mess.

If you want to get down to it, it was more a LACK of government that allowed this to happen. The private sector is the one at fault but the government should have regulated them better.
 

DucatiMonster696

Diamond Member
Aug 13, 2009
4,269
1
71
I fail to see how anything you said prevents us from enforcing the rule of existing black letter law on private individuals and companies. If a subset of our society does not have to follow the law why do you and I have to follow it?

This isn't the first banking crisis we have had and the last one we put a metric fuckton of banksters in jail so I am not buying the "but we need THOSE SPECIFIC ASSHOLES RUNNING (or used to be running) the show". Throw the fuckers that committed crimes in jail and let new assholes take their place. Call it economic development...

The point I am making is that the system today is rigged and bankers are protected because there is now an entrenched inter-dependency between governments and the banking industry of which is maintained via interventionist central banks in this entire ordeal. Of which this dependency is hinged upon interest rate manipulation, loose money policies and sustaining and expanding debt on all sides.

Now I don't disagree that we don't need these people and in fact I'd say we need some of these mega banks to actually go bankrupt and cease existing (we have 7,000 other banks in the US today which do not receive the same treatment as the top 4 banks in the US ) along with throwing some of these sleazy CEO's in jail.

However sadly the powers that be (mainly our government and other governments world wide) have flat out shown no desire or motivation to push through convictions because all of those individuals involved in the aforementioned inter-dependent relationship do not want to step on each other's toes.

In the end government isn't looking out for our interest as much as they are only looking to maintain the status quo of debt, spending and a manipulation and extention of any and all false economic booms for political gains. For that situation to maintain itself they need to ensure that the players of the central banking authorities and the banking industry giants are all willing and able to play ball without each of these entities having fear of prosecution or the threat recrimination when the house of debt laden cards comes crashing down.

If that means creating and allowing an environment of heavy and loose financial risk taking by not raising interest rates, advocating for loose money policies, buying votes with assurances of increased or sustian government spending or passing on convictions of cases of outright fraud ( **cough**Eric Holder's admission of some banks being to big to prosecute**) then it is the price governments are willing to pay for this continued Faustian bankers and cheap money pact we in this nation and other nations around the world have signed onto. So this is why you shouldn't hold your breath on convictions and especially in this nation.
 
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