The word is GET YOUR MONEY OUT of the BANKS WHEREVER YOU LIVE!!
"The crisis in Cyprus undermines faith in the future of currency union"
Related: Cyprus Signals Euro Crash
And the banksters who brought it to you are trying to grab as much loot as they can as it collapses!
"Cyprus hunts for alternative to taxing bank deposits" by Liz Alderman and David M. Herszenhorn | New York Times, March 21, 2013
NICOSIA, Cyprus — Scrambling to placate international lenders, Cyprus late Wednesday proposed to nationalize the country’s pension funds and conduct an emergency bond sale to help raise the roughly $7.5 billion the indebted country needs to secure a bailout.
Yeah, STEAL the PENSIONS INSTEAD and GO DEEPER INTO DEBT! Yeah, that will solve the problem.
The proposals are meant to slash the amount of money that would be raised by a controversial tax on bank deposits, as originally planned in a $12.9 billion international bailout package that the Cypriot Parliament rejected the night before.
But even the revised plan contains a bank tax, that while much smaller than originally proposed, might still not be palatable to Parliament. Under the new plan, all Cypriot bank deposits of up to roughly $129,500 would be hit by a one-time tax of 2 percent. Deposits above that threshold would be subject to a 5 percent levy.
Blogs have pointed out that was purpose of introducing such an outrageous rate at first. Then they talk it down as if the average citizen who is being looted is being given a break. Classic "negotiating" tactic.
The fallback was being cobbled together as the finance minister pressed his case in Moscow on Wednesday in hopes of securing further aid.
The government extended through next Tuesday a bank holiday designed to prevent a run on institutions. Banks have frozen all accounts in a crisis here that risks tipping the country into default and sowing turmoil in the eurozone.
GO GET YOUR MONEY NOW!
Stop reading this and GO GET YOUR MONEY OUT of the BANK NOW!
Banks have been closed since Saturday, and authorities have ordered banks to keep ATMs filled with cash as long as their doors remain shut. But that has been of little help to the thousands of international companies with accounts in Cyprus that cannot transfer money in and out of their accounts to conduct business.
The extended bank holiday is aimed at buying time for Cypriot authorities to reach an agreement with the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank, and the European Commission, which were not certain to approve Cyprus’ latest plan.
Three banks dominate the economy, and each is edging close to collapse.
Then LET THEM GO like ICELAND DID and JAIL the F***ERS who RAN THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!
The government was also making tentative plans to merge at least two of them — Cyprus Popular Bank and Bank of Cyprus — and placing the healthy assets into one entity, while moving troubled assets into a so-called bad bank.
That is the exact thing the Fed did here, and it didn't work.
European officials are watching the situation with alarm, said one person with direct knowledge of the discussions, who was not authorized to speak publicly.
If a deal is not reached soon for a bailout that would support the banks, or if Cyprus does not find funds through some other route, European officials fear that ‘‘the damage would be enormous, and the country itself would be at risk of collapse,’’ the person said.
If that happens, the person added, officials are concerned that a clear risk would arise that Cyprus could ‘‘go out of the euro,’’ creating ‘‘a painful situation that would spur chaos.’’
The finance minister of Cyprus met Wednesday with his counterpart at the Russian Finance Ministry and with a deputy prime minister.
In a surprise twist, the head of the Church of Cyprus proposed putting all of its properties up as collateral so that the state could issue a new round of sovereign bonds to raise money. The church is one of the largest investors on the island.
Even churches serve banks.
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"Legislators in Cyprus approve key bailout bills" by Menelaos Hadjicostis | Associated Press, March 23, 2013
NICOSIA, Cyprus — Lawmakers in Cyprus approved three key bills Friday that aim to raise enough money to qualify the country for a broader bailout package and help it avoid financial ruin in days.
A total of nine bills were approved, including a key one on restructuring the nation’s banks, which lost billions on bad Greek debt; one on restricting financial transactions in times of crisis; and one that sets up a ‘solidarity fund’ into which investments and contributions will flow.
They will loot you any way they can!
More bills to meet the total target of $7.5 billion Cyprus needs to secure an international bailout will be brought for a vote during the weekend.
They include a crucial one that would impose a tax of less than 1 percent on all bank deposits, said Averof Neophytou, of the governing DISY party.
‘‘We are voting for the least worst option,’’ Neophytou said in a speech. ‘‘We owe an apology to the Cypriot people because we all share in the responsibility of bringing this place to this state.’’
Speak for yourself, asshole! The PEOPLE of CYPRUS had NOTHING TO DO WITH BAD BANK BETS!!!
Approval of the tax would come just days after Parliament decisively turned down a plan that would have seized up to 10 percent of residents’ bank deposits. The plan triggered an outcry from those who condemned it as an unfair grab of their life savings, while politicians saw it as causing irreparable damage to the nation’s financial center status.
That is what it still is, but now it is less than one percent so I'm sure you will hardly miss it.
Besides, don't you want your life savings to be used to bail out banks? What more noble purpose could there be?
Cyprus’ president, Nicos Anastasiades, travels to Brussels on Saturday to present his revised package to the nation’s prospective creditors and its fellow countries that use the euro currency. There has been no indication yet that they will accept it.
Cyprus has been told to raise $7.5 billion to qualify for rescue loans. The European Central Bank has said it will stop providing emergency funding to the country’s banks on Monday if a new plan is not in place.
It's called extortion.
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UPDATE:
"EU leaders approve Cyprus bailout deal" by James Kanter, Liz Alderman and Andrew Higgins | New York Times, March 25, 2013
My printed pos is an AP piece.
BRUSSELS — Struggling into the early-morning hours to avoid a collapse of Cyprus’s banking system, European Union leaders on Monday agreed on a bailout package intended to keep Cyprus in the eurozone and rebuild its devastated economy.
The deal, struck after hours of meetings here, was approved by the finance ministers from the eurozone, the 17 countries that use the common currency. It would drastically prune the size of Cyprus’s oversize banking sector, bloated by billions of dollars from Russia and elsewhere in the former Soviet Union.
The deal would scrap the highly controversial idea of a tax on bank deposits, although it would still require forced losses for depositors and bondholders.
A turd, by any other name.... ?
“We have a deal,’’ President Nicos Anastasiades of Cyprus was quoted as saying by Greek media. ‘‘It is in the interests of the Cypriot people and the European Union.’’
This isn't in the interests of the people of Cyprus. Bailing out banks on the backs of taxpayers for bad bets isn't in there interest. Piling more debt upon them is not in there interest.
The provisions, if put into effect, should help reverse what, in recent days, has been Cyprus’s steady retreat into a surreal premodern economy dominated by cash.
Retailers, gas stations, and supermarkets, gripped by uncertainty over whether Cyprus would really secure a $13 billion financial lifeline, have increasingly refused to take credit cards and checks.
“It’s been cash-only here for three days,’’ said Ali Wissom, the manager at Il Forno di Jenny’s restaurant off Cyprus’s main square in Nicosia. ‘‘The banks have closed, we don’t really know if they will reopen, and all of our suppliers are demanding cash — even the beer company.’’
With major banks in Cyprus shut for more than week, a trip to the cash machine has become a daily ritual for anyone in Cyprus in need of money. The initial limit on withdrawals was 400 euros. It then fell to 260. As of Sunday night, it slipped to a meager 100 euros.
At the Centrum Hotel, Georgia Xenophontes, 23, an employee in the front office, said she drained her bank account at a cash machine last week — just in time to avoid being hit with the latest withdrawal limit....
In Brussels, the day was filled with confusion and rancor. Reports filtered out of heated confrontations between Anastasiades and European Union negotiators, and especially with the International Monetary Fund, which Anastasiades has accused of trying to push Cyprus up against a wall.
Which you are now up against, citizens of Cyprus.
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