Thom Hartmann: Cyprus - Is this the next phase in austerity - naked theft?

[thomhartmann]

Prof. Richard Wolff, Democracy At Work, joins Thom Hartmann. The Cyprus bailout crisis is far from over. And the worst may be yet to come. On Tuesday - Cyprus's parliament voted down an EU- and IMF-sponsored deal that would have bailed out the island's failing banks in exchange for slapping depositors with either a 6.75% or 9.9% levy on their savings accounts. According to EU officials - the plan was intended to make wealthy foreigners - who often use Cyprus as a tax haven - pay for the bailout. But the plan would have forced all Cypriot account holders - not just the wealthy - to pay for the banksters' mistakes.

The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann on RT TV & FSTV "live" 9pm and 11pm check www.thomhartmann.com/tv for local listings

[fasttense]

1. Is this coming to the US?

I've heard talk that because we print our own money that this wont happen in America but we are cutting federal jobs, our payroll taxes have gone up, and Obama wants to do a grand bargain and do the chain-CPI and reduce Social Security, so we are doing austerity too.

Will the geniuses who brought us this awful economy bring us this confiscation of our banks deposits too? I can't help but wonder if this Cyprus's plan to raid bank accounts is a preview of things to come in America. Maybe it's time to take my money out of the banks? If they took 6 to 10% of my account, I would be in deep shit.