Vocal Voices

The EU is giving Cyprus a bail out. But for some reason this means that ordinary people with money in the bank are going to have some of it taken away from them. If you have 100,000 euros or more in the bank you will have 9.9% of it taken off you. Less than that and you will have 6.75% taken off you.
This is theft, pure and simple.
Why should the ordinary Cypriot have money stolen from them by their own government? What right has the EU to insist this was done?
It is scandalous that the man in the street is being robbed to compensate for the failings of greedy bankers and incompetent politicians.
The banks have disabled the on-line transfer of funds so people can't move cash out of the banks before they re-open on Tuesday. It will be interesting to see what happens when the banks do re-open.
Could this cause a run on the banks in Greece, Spain, Italy etc? If people think they too are going to be robbed by their bank might they not just take their money and put it under the mattress?

It's disgusting, but sadly, not unexpected. The love of money is the root of all evil.

I went there on holiday last year, Ooj. The Cypriot people were all very nice to us; they don't deserve this.

I could not believe that one-off savings levy when I read the press reports! Rioting on the streets ought to follow .....

But I did wonder if it was tantamount to a back-door currency devaluation ....

More evidence, if any was needed, that politicians will help out the banks and that banks will help out their friends and other banks. Creditors, such as hedge funds, who own bonds in the banks will not get hit, but the ordinary saver will pay and pay hard.

So, it is not only in Britain that these dirty practices operate.

Cypriots are few and their economy is small, those are the reasons this is being imposed. To try to do the same with a major economy would lead to revolution.

Do we really need to keep our troops there? The days of Makarios are long gone.

cromwell wrote:It is scandalous that the man in the street is being robbed to compensate for the failings of greedy bankers and incompetent politicians.

A clearer definition of Austerity Taxes I have not yet heard.

To my mind it is more honest to do a one off cull like this than it is to put in place punishing and crippling taxation which will not be repealed for decades, if ever.

What I want to know is what happened to the Russian Oligarch's Trillions of € that were safely salted away in Cyprus. Capital Flight? Or did they help it fly????

It would be interesting to know....

It might be more honest if the other side of the honesty card was also played - a cull of the bankers, financial institutions and their allies, the ratings agencies, who AAAed the toxic junk the spivs were selling.

What am I saying? Every banker in the Universe could be hung by their private parts and the French and Germans would not put up with it at Cyprus levels. They would be on the streets pretty sharpish, and the politicians would be on the run, even the British might chip in with cries of "It's not cricket old boy!"

It might be fairer, yes, certainly to future generations, but it would be a risk no politician would take.

All the bailout countries are nothing more than delaying actions. Delay, Delay, Delay and pray that something comes up. Or that Merkel wins the German elections in September and then they can start on the real issues.

Nice to known the solutions to the crises in the entire Eurozone are hostage to the German election isn't it......

Nothing about this is honest, but at least this is more honest than taxes which do nothing and hang around forever. Hang the bankers all you want, but it won't fix the problem. Namely that the banks expanded the money supply massively beyond anything anyone will admit to. That money set the value for property and fixed assets. Admit the guilt and we'd see a lost 2 decades (and counting), like Japan as all the fixed assets become devalued. Imagine, your 2M southern counties house suddenly worth £300k.

Not a happy thought and the reason everyone is trying to fudge the books. At least the UK is trying to inflate their way out of it, which is the smarter move in the long run. If they'd let inflation run up to 8% for another 5 years, most of the damage would be mitigated.

But of course they wont' because "Bungler Brown" set the seeds of destruction with his idiot inflation rates and suicidal borrowing. Just like the rest of the EU....

There is a reason why 3rd world countries run 15% or more inflation. They have to devalue it somehow. If we want to run up close to 3rd world debt, then we should run close to 3rd world inflation too.

And we should stop ranting about the Bankers too. It is clearly the Politicians, now, who won't allow the whole truth to be known or the whole situation to be fixed.

After all, without that massive expansion of the money supply, these governments could not have borrowed so much money.

I'd love to hack into the Barclays recordings of telephone conversations with both the Government and the BOE. What is most telling is that the bankers felt they needed to make them and, most importantly, to keep them. I'd guess they are their most critical security issue right now and in the most secure, time locked, vaults.....

As Mick said this morning whilst we were watching the news, we will all be buying taller beds soon - under the mattress is going to be the only way to keep our money safe from the thieving banks!

I feel very sorry for the Cypriots - there was a huge run on the banks there yesterday and no wonder!!! Although the banks put a limit on what people could withdraw and on debit cards too It's theft, pure and simple