The Cyprus Parliament…
…did in fact reject the bill to “tax” bank deposits, even though it had been amended to exclude smaller investors from the levy. The vote was 36 against, 0 in favor, and 19 abstentions.
Hundreds of protesters outside Parliament cheered in jubilation and sang the national anthem when they heard the bill had not passed.
I cheer, too, although I’m not sure the damage hasn’t been done to people’s trust in the banks and the people who oversee them, and especially the EU leaders (that is, if people still trusted the EU leaders in the first place, which I doubt).
And of course, the money will still have to come from somewhere. Maybe we can get a magician to pull it out of a hat?
Increasingly, governments and institutions such as the EU consider the rules something to be circumvented rather than protected, if it suits their needs. Ends, means, and all that. Obama did it with the Chrysler creditors. Commenter “Ray” points out that the British government raided private pension funds a while ago (see also this). There may be others I haven’t heard about. And now this recent attempt by the EU.
The trends are clear. But to notice trends, one must be looking. How many people are? At least the Cyprus thing seems to have gotten a lot of people’s attention—although probably not enough. And I bet that, if the grab had been limited to the “very rich” in the first place, it would have been just fine with a majority of people, both here and in Europe.
The problem in Cyprus was that the cooks turned up the temperature on the frog too quickly, and it jumped out of the pot. For now.
[NOTE: By the way, from the Wiki article about the frog metaphor:
According to contemporary biologists the premise of the story is not literally true; a frog submerged and gradually heated will jump out. However, some 19th-century experiments suggested that the underlying premise is true, provided the heating is sufficiently gradual.]
[ADDENDUM: European Member of Parliament Daniel Hannan opines (hat tip Legal Insurrection):
The least bad option for a country in Cyprus’s condition is to price its way into the market and export its way back to growth. But that would mean giving up on the dream of a European federal state.
Do you remember that, when the euro was launched, we were told it would add 1 per cent to its members’ growth every year in perpetuity?
As recently as four years ago, when the credit crunch hit, the anti-British leader of the Euro-liberals, a former Belgian president called Guy Verhofstadt, was sneering that the UK would soon be begging for permission to join.
Now we see the truth. The dream of political union matters more to Europe’s governing caste than the well-being of the people they represent. Shame on them.
Unfortunately, I don’t think shame is in their vocabulary.]
I think Germany is the designated magician. What happens when they get tired of doing the same old trick every 2 months?
Talk about boiling the frog, Neil Cavuto has pointed out that the Obama tax of 3.8% on the sale of large-profit assets is no different than the Cypriot tax on savings. It’s good that Cyrpus has received the international attention it has; hopefully there will be more people paying attention.
Iceland is a good example of allowing the big banks to fail and rebooting the economy. It was painful but now the country is back on its feet with real GDP growth and unemployment below 6%. http://tinyurl.com/ck79q9k
As was predictable the Cyprus ‘haircut’ idea is on the table in another country, New Zealand. http://tinyurl.com/ck6bvnx
People everywhere need to stand up and just say no. Unfortunately, we did not do that in 2008. Eventually the issue must be faced because it only becomes more painful to resolve as QE unlike Buzz Lightyear QE will never reach infinity.
Coolidge knew this to be true. 🙂
Iceland is a good example of allowing the big banks to fail and rebooting the economy.
And Japan is a good example of preventing big banks from failing, and just taking pain killers for a generation rather than setting that broken leg.
Unfortunately, only a few people understand the implications of the Cyprus bailout deal. Even if it has failed at this time, doesn’t mean it won’t be attempted again somewhere else. As parker points out, New Zealand has floated the idea. The dems (Nancy Pelosi in particular) have mentioned the idea of forcing IRA and 401K owners to buy government bonds, which is another form of forcibly diverting private money to public use.
All people, particularly the wealthy, should be feeling very nervous about what’s coming. But, of course, the MSM won’t cover it, Therefore, for far too many people in the U.S., it doesn’t exist.
Parker…
You need to study up on ‘Financial Repression.’
Bing it.
Barry & Co. have been engaging in Wealth Taxation every day he’s been in office — to include golfing and partying.
Nineteen abstentions? Like to hear the reason(s) for that.
Maybe the crowd protesting was too large to let nearly a third of the legislators through.
blert,
“Give me control of a nation’s money and I care not who makes the laws.” – M.A. Rothschild
“It is well enough that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.” – Henry Ford
Ron Paul had one great idea: conduct congressional audits of the FED and the big banks.
” ‘Do you remember that, when the euro was launched, we were told it would add 1 per cent to its members’ growth every year in perpetuity?’ . . . Unfortunately, I don’t think shame is in their vocabulary.”
And obamacare was going to cover everyone, including those with preexisting conditions, at reduced cost, and would not add to the country’s deficit.
(Never mind that you cannot show me a government program ever, that stayed within its promised budget and/or purview. Even most listeners would have to admit (perhaps sheepishly) that that’s the case, after they’d thought about it for a microsecond or three.)
There’s something about merely saying something that encourages listeners to think it’s so, even discounting the very-human will to believe — unless the listener was brought up by pathological liars. But that’s outside ^my^ purview [smile].
There is out there a desperate need for critical thinking. Nay, too stringent: there is out there a desperate need for ^thinking^.
Hey I have an idea, let’s entice banks to buy bonds from insolvent governments.
Oh wait.
How about let’s have the insolvent Federal Reserve buy worthless bonds with pretend money.
That’s the key to prosperity.
Richard Aubrey…
The 19 represent their President’s party.
He’d (and they) just been elected.
They couldn’t vote directly against their own man, so they abstained.
The effect is just the same, of course.
Deficit spending — covered by borrowing — in a fiat regime — means that all assets nominated in that currency are being wealth taxed.
It is delusional thinking to believe that sovereign governments borrow — since they control the courts, the central bank and the printing press.
Such ‘debts’ a but hyperinflationary debasement of the unit of account — the currency.
The Cyprus gambit merely made visible what has been going on for Y E A R S — everywhere governments have been running deficits.
Fiat issuing entities/ governments do NOT obey the economic rules like their lessers.
Above all, they are not borrowing money. They are printing it, even if that printing takes the form of electrons and nominal debt instruments.
To borrow something implicitly means that, at some term, that thing is returned/ paid off in equal value.
Sovereign governments don’t do that.
Today’s dollars buy far less than they did five years ago.
They will buy even less five years from now. The nominal interest to be earned in the (manipulated) market place is so low as to absolutely guarantee real wealth losses to savers.
That (hidden) haircut functions no different than the proposed Cypriot haircut.
Both are Wealth Taxes.
I’ve posted on this before — right here.
Wealth is being taxed — on a massive scale — to keep the Wan in clover.
At the end, all will come to realize that Barry has blow all of that wealth down a rat hole.
Public improvements spending in Iraq, over the last ten years, is an example of how wealth can be spent — and destroyed.
Spending to improve muslim nations functions as a tax upon the infidels to support the ummah — which promptly perverts and destroys any positive outcomes.
And obamacare was going to cover everyone, including those with preexisting conditions, at reduced cost, and would not add to the country’s deficit.
My favorite part was Obama’s saying that he’d pay for it through the “increased efficiency.” Right. Government-run programs are renowned for their efficiency.
Proof positive that there is no God, or Obama would’ve been a pile of smoldering cinders right after saying that.
“Right. Government-run programs are renowned for their efficiency.”
The Obamaphone program, food stamps, rent assistance, etc. have been very efficient at getting votes. 😉
It’s already been happening here for years; Congress Is Looting Federal Worker, Military Retirement Funds
“As of January 1, 2010, the amount of money owed to federal civilian and military pension trust funds passed the $1 trillion mark as Congress continues to loot all of the federal government’s trust funds to pay for deficit spending.
More money is now owed by the federal government to these two funds than what is owed to China.”
Nor is that by any means to sole extent of the tactics being employed and contemplated to pay for the entitlement state; income equalization via a massive redistribution of suburban tax money to the cities
I wanted to share this with you, fellow patriots. It’s a moving moment in a baseball game in the 1970s of spontaneous patriotism (both players and fans) that has been called “the greatest play in baseball history.”
http://preview.tinyurl.com/cyevwtg
Why We Fight.
Semper fidelis.
RE all these blasted thieves — because that’s what they are, THIEVES: hanging is too good for them.
Well, should we all buy precious metals? Steer clear of gold, lest they steal that, too, like Franklin Delano Roosevelt did in 1933? Or maybe hog belly futures?
Or do we go to the mattresses?
RS, Goeffrey, what are you worried about? Joe Biden told us Social Security won’t go bankrupt untiil 2030! Party down, dude!
Beverly,
Thanks for the memory. Truly a great play.
And, its not time for going to the mattresses. They get to steal the first bank account and then don’t go to the mattresses, stay mobile. 😉 Depending on where you live, small city, town, or rural area is the best bet, and get to know the local law enforcement and ask them how they feel about the 2nd and the 4th. You might be surprised.
“And of course, the money will still have to come from somewhere. Maybe we can get a magician to pull it out of a hat?”
In the West, we used to make things of value, create wealth, and use that money to pay for the things we have or want.
That was our parent’s generation. We have been living off the wealth they created, and it’s practically gone. We had no idea not only where it came from but that it came from anywhere at all! We simply assumed it was just “there”, like Jupiter.
This is not rocket science. If we want wealth we will have to produce it. That means manufacturing things again. We have to build factories and make things in them.
Work that one out and we can manage. Don’t and we are cooked.
“…the money will still have to come from somewhere…”
Silly woman. All they need to do is go to Amazon and order the Bernake MoneyMaster Printer. Need cash now? Put the paper in the feeder. select the domination you want, press the “Print” button and…Presto! You’re set to go.
The Bernake MoneyMaster Printer. When you need cash NOW!
The damage is done. This attempt has destroyed faith in banking – again, or at least brought it to people’s attention. Stock markets are preening because there was no run on banks in Spain or Italy. What I expect is a gradual loss of interest in bank accounts – since the reduction in interest rates, there is very little downside to a coffee can in the back yard or a mattress. Some of the discussion has also made small savers more aware of the inflation that is supposedly not occurring – maybe just spending the cash is more rational. I understand the Russians offered to put Cypress back on its financial feet in exchange for exclusive rights to its potential natural gas resources.
Increasingly, governments and institutions such as the EU consider the rules something to be circumvented rather than protected, if it suits their needs.
I find such a statement interesting…
it clues me into what people were duped into believing in terms of what the European union would be and was designed to be from the very start.
what other, similarly named country had unelected officials that ran things from a supreme committee (a soviet) who answered to nobody and centrally planned the administration of many countries they controlled? Also, what same country said that this is what the EU was and was always intended to be?
I will give you a hint: Ukrainian politicians went into a full brawl yesterday because one of them decided to speak in the language of that country that administrated their country.
go read about the EU here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_European_Union
Whats missing?
the names of the people who orchestrated things. the names there are people who agreed with the orchestrates that are not mentioned and whose ideas go back to Fabians and Progressives again.
With statements such as Winston Churchill’s 1946 call for a “United States of Europe” becoming louder, in 1949 the Council of Europe was established as the first pan-European organization.
Council of Europe = Soviet of Europe
if soviet is a council, then that translation is correct
and a soviet union is a union of states administrated by a council, and a hierarchy of councils who have delegated powers to act.
now… if you have seen that, you are seeing what everyone denies can happen! ie. while waiting for the person to arrive, they arrived, came in the back door, made a sandwich, watched some TV
one only has to analyse things to see if the structure is one of freedom where the politicians serve the people, or is socialist where the aristocracy bureaucratically (as there is no other way given the numbers – so if your looking for them to be a caricature from the past….) controls the public by abusing the purpose of law.
ie. the two systems purposes and uses of law are what is key to understanding what kind of place your living in – not degree…
and so, understanding this, one would find your statement above interesting, as it misses the point. its not being able to tell the difference between a coral snake and a milk snake..
funny thing… a person will say they know, and say they know, but that statement has no meaning in any real veracity other than demanding that people then act and pretend as if the other knows.
but that same thing applied to something like a snake, where the knowing will define the outcome… would they put their hand in and grab the snake based on their idea of knowing?
now what if they didn’t know that the situation is similar to the snakes and that the outcome is just as dire to their life expectancies and other things?
here… let me show you that we are not in a free country any more and havent been. the way you can tell is that there is delgated powers, and that the purpose of law is not to restrict criminal behavior, its to control social behavior.
the feminists normalized that we should use law to control the behavior of the citizens. given that the citizens rule over the state, this would be akin to the employees figuring out how to control the boss, and selling the boss on how that’s a great deal for the boss, as she don’t have to work so hard (but works harder now and is told that’s temporary. like my office, temporary for two years now)
under feminism and racialism, both movements of socialist communism (And now admit it – so that argument is settled though most people who were losing it in the past, still lost, and dont even know they lost or its now settled), we normalized using law for the purpose of controlling behavior and social outcomes.
THAT is unconstitutional… the whole basis of it is.
now… do you want to know why all that is hated? yet we do it? your waiting for the goose steppers… and they came before you were born
what is SOCIAL DARWINISM?
and what does using laws for SOCIAL OUTCOMES is for? what were the nazi laws for blood and soil for?
[edited for length]
European Soviet Union propaganda poster
Fresh from its Nobel Peace Prize award, the EU releases a propaganda poster proving its tolerance and inclusivity. Note that the hammer and sickle is planted right at the top of the star. All that appears to be missing is a Nazi swastika to complement a symbol that became notorious for totalitarianism, oppression and suffering irrespective of its original meaning of uniting urban and country folk.
http://5ocietyx.wordpress.com/2012/10/24/european-soviet-union-propaganda-poster/
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
from same defector
When you look into all this bizarre activity of the European Union with its 80,000 pages of regulations it looks like Gosplan… an organisation which was planning everything in the economy, to the last nut and bolt, five years in advance. Exactly the same thing is happening in the EU. When you look at the type of EU corruption, it is exactly the Soviet type of corruption, going from top to bottom rather than going from bottom to top.
note how the soviets of the union ordered the soviets of greece to appropriate the savings of its people?
now, what kind of countries do that?
here and there:
The Soviet Union used to be a state run by ideology. Today’s ideology of the European Union is social-democratic, statist, and a big part of it is also political correctness. I watch very carefully how political correctness spreads and becomes an oppressive ideology…. Look at this persecution of people like the Swedish pastor who was persecuted for several months because he said that the Bible does not approve homosexuality. France passed the same law of hate speech concerning gays. Britain is passing hate speech laws concerning race relations and now religious speech…. What you observe, taken into perspective, is a systematic introduction of ideology which could later be enforced with oppressive measures. Apparently that is the whole purpose of Europol….
but he said all that in the late 80s, early 90s…
and a warning too far in advance is ignored..
its taken as crazy… even if it matches whats going on
you now have 90 year old ex nazis writing articles (dozens of them actually), warning people how close this is…
but they want exact copies, and cant “get” equivalence
Artfldgr: once again, you misunderstood what I was saying.
I wonder why this keeps happening—and I don’t mean that disrespectfully. It really is happening to the point where it happens more often than not. That did not used to be the case.
I don’t have time to correct every misconception of yours about the meaning of my words (and I’m never sure whether you read these comments anyway), but let me just say that when I wrote, “Increasingly, governments and institutions such as the EU consider the rules something to be circumvented rather than protected, if it suits their needs,” I didn’t mean “increasingly in the last couple of years.” I meant “increasingly in the last century or so,” and “increasing even more in the last twenty-five years or so,” and “increasingly obvious and overt and unmistakeable in the last five years or so.”
Commenter “Ray” points out that the British government raided private pension funds a while ago (see also this). There may be others I haven’t heard about.
Years before The EU got into the act, Argentina was in on the act, when it nationalized pension funds in 2008.
Neo:
What artfldgr posts may not be in direct reponse to your lead-off essay, but, as in the present case, offers worthy material. His lengthy responses contain worthy kernels. Certainly his depth of Soviet history and the analogies to the bureaucratic EEU are worthy.
Occam’s Beard Says:
“And Japan is a good example of preventing big banks from failing, and just taking pain killers for a generation rather than setting that broken leg.”
By the end of O’s second term we will be 10 years in to our own no econ growth period… ah la our own ‘lost decade’.
Beverly Says:
“Well, should we all buy precious metals? Steer clear of gold, lest they steal that, too, like Franklin Delano Roosevelt did in 1933?”
Mixed bag. Gold is good for smuggling wealth out of the country but too valuable to be much good for using a medium of exchange (re: hard to buy a dinner with). Silver is a better choice for that. Half ounce; dinner in a crisis.