So now we get word of this:
NICOSIA, Cyprus--Cyprus and its prospective international lenders are considering altering brackets on a one-off deposit levy agreed to as part of a bailout deal reached Saturday that will see savers suffer losses in exchange for the country's EUR10 billion bailout, an official with knowledge of the situation said Sunday.The plan that is currently under consideration will leave the target revenue of the extraordinary levy unchanged at EUR5.8B but will seek to protect smaller depositors.According to the official a new plan would see deposits up to EUR100,000 taking a loss of under 5%; of EUR100,000 to EUR500,000 under 10%; and over EUR500,000 of about 13%.The original deal that Cyprus struck with its euro-zone peers and the troika of the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund is to impose a one-off levy of 6.75% to all deposits up to EUR100,000 and of 9.9% to those above.While there was no indication that a new, more nuanced plan to cushion the pain for smaller depositors would be eventually agreed to, one senior European Union official said that it was feasible to change the original plan in cooperation with the Cypriot authorities.Cypriot president Nicos Anastasiades in a televised address to the nation Sunday evening hinted that talks on a new plan were underway.""I continue to fight so that the eurogroup's decisions are differentiated in coming hours so that the consequences can be limited, particularly for small savers," he said," Mr. Anastasiades said.
So first they announce the 6.75% on $130,000 and below, 9.9% on $130,000 and above, then they say:
"Okay, we hear your pain.
We'll change it to less than 5% for under $130,000, less than 10% for $130,000- $710,000 and 13% above $710,000.
This deal is the best we could do considering the circumstances, and really, compared to the deal Bloomberg and Klein, er, Germany and the IMF really wanted, it scrapes the skies it's so good!"
Yeah, I've seen this kind of thing before.
The reality is, the deal scrapes the dogshit off the street and hands it to everybody for dinner no matter what they change it to.
Shit sandwich anyone?
If they had pushed the bank shares deal to begin with, the fallout wouldn't have been nearly as bad as it has been. Also, sticking it to uninsured depositors would have had a certain romantic appeal: the good guys are unphased, only the bad guys loose their first born, etc. As it is, the EU might need to hire Bloomberg's new henchmen to see through this one, and they might not be enough… this looks like a PR disaster, in the least.
ReplyDeleteThis type of confiscation is already being planned in the good ol' USA.
ReplyDeleteAhem...where is the last HUGE treasure trove of private funds that our sleazy politicians would LOVE to get at...?
Here in the U.S. that be your 401k, TDA type retirement accounts. Some figure in the trillions is becoming low hanging fruit for our gangsters-in-chief.
They have already discussed in Congress how to steal that from us when the time comes-and maybe sooner than later.
At the chosen time, those holding funds in any of these types of accounts will be given a choice. Either cough up your lifetime nest eggs for a paltry 2 or 3 per cent interest on your money (if we're lucky) OR pay a very substantial penalty. That's if we'll be given a choice at all. You know....the "trying times call for hard choices" type of spiel we'll get.
You know...they scare the crap out of you, THEN steal from you.
These funds will create some super fund for whatever use by the government-kind of like massive Social Security type fund in which all must participate.
This is why thousands of people around the country have taken the 10% penalty and emptied these accounts before the age of 59 and a half.
ReplyDeleteThey would rather control the 90% of their saving rather than lose most of it to the jokers in D.C.
These will be called "GRAs"...here's from an article
ReplyDeletehttp://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/senate-hearing-seizure-of-401k-accounts-may-be-reality-soon_10112010
"Democrats in the Senate on Thursday held a recess hearing covering a taxpayer bailout of union pensions and a plan to seize private 401(k) plans to more “fairly” distribute taxpayer-funded pensions to everyone.
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee heard from hand-picked witnesses advocating the infamous “Guaranteed Retirement Account” (GRA) authored by Theresa Guilarducci.
(You can find the blistering interview with Guilarducci by radio talk show host Mark Levin in 2007 at the link).
In a nutshell, under the GRA system government would seize private 401(k) accounts, setting up an additional 5% mandatory payroll tax to dole out a “fair” pension to everyone using that confiscated money coupled with the mandated contributions. This would, of course, be a sister government ponzi scheme working in tandem with Social Security, the primary purpose being to give big government politicians additional taxpayer funds to raid to pay for their out-of-control spending."