Cyprus: Could it Happen Here?

[marmar]

Web of Debt blog / By Ellen Brown

Cyprus: Could it Happen Here?
Confiscation has been avoided for the moment. But the plan was long in the making, and it isn’t limited to Cyprus.

March 21, 2013 |

“If these worries become really serious, . . . small savers will take their money out of banks and resort to household safes and a shotgun." -- Martin Hutchinson on the attempted EU raid on private deposits in Cyprus banks.

The deposit confiscation scheme has long been in the making. US depositors could be next . . . .

On Tuesday, March 19, the national legislature of Cyprus overwhelmingly rejected a proposed levy on bank deposits as a condition for a European bailout. Reuters called it “a stunning setback for the 17-nation currency bloc,” but it was a stunning victory for democracy. As Reuters quoted one 65-year-old pensioner, “The voice of the people was heard.”

The EU had warned that it would withhold €10 billion in bailout loans, and the European Central Bank (ECB) had threatened to end emergency lending assistance for distressed Cypriot banks, unless depositors – including small savers – shared the cost of the rescue. In the deal rejected by the legislature, a one-time levy on depositors would be required in return for a bailout of the banking system. Deposits below €100,000 would be subject to a 6.75% levy or “haircut”, while those over €100,000 would have been subject to a 9.99% “fine.”

.........(snip)........

The Long-planned Confiscation Scheme

The deal pushed by the “troika” – the EU, ECB and IMF – has been characterized as a one-off event devised as an emergency measure in this one extreme case. But the confiscation plan has long been in the making, and it isn’t limited to Cyprus. .....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/economy/cyprus-could-it-happen-here

[mn9driver]

1. It already has.

The Federal Government paid out $4.6 TRILLION to the financial sector since 2008. $2 trillion of that will probably never be seen again, maybe much more.

So, with all the proposed cuts to SS and Medicare along with further tax breaks for billionaires and the stealth deregulation of the industry after Dodd-Frank, it's pretty obvious that the EU got the idea to just take the money from the depositors from us.

It's more honest, quicker, and it cuts out the middleman. Unlike what our government has already done to us.

[reformist2]

2. It's true. Instead of taking money, they printed $4 trillion and gave it to themselves.

Every one of those bank execs should have all lost their jobs, and probably their entire net worths should have been clawed back. Instead, they are all still there, as rich as ever.

[PoliticAverse]

3. Indeed the theft here is occuring via inflation. n/t