Nevermind...I missed this post.

There has been quite a bit of talk of starting a value added tax, or a national sales tax in this country. The effect on people who have managed to save money would be very similar to what has been proposed in Cypress.


I just hate it when the rules are changed in the middle of the game.

So the people that saved and went without some things get punished and those that spent all without saving get off scott free? That's one way to level the playing field.

Or you could do it this way.

Washington Lawmakers' Pensions: The Envy of a Nation

While extending the payroll tax cut through the end of last year, members of Congress last fall took what many feel was a long overdue whack at the cost of their retirement plan. They bumped up the rate at which federal employees contribute to their pension plan, saving an estimated $15 billion over the next 11 years.

They also made sure that none of the increase applied to themselves.

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/03/14/washington-lawmakers-pensions-the-envy-of-a-nation/

Fishy

I thought I read that they backed off the idea now. Wise move, I would say.

The Botching of the Cyprus Bailout: Worse Than Lehman Brothers

Everyone now agrees that Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson badly botched the Lehman Brothers crisis of 2009. But at least he had an excuse. Panicked by the speed of Lehman’s meltdown, he had no time for second thoughts. By comparison the German-led group of EU officials who engineered this weekend’s Cyprus bank bailout don’t have a leg to stand on.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/eamonnfingle...ehman-brothers/

Fishy

Seems a levy being actual bank robbery is gaining international attention....

Putin is Pissed

Maybe 'cause Russian business of the legit and not so legit kind run funds through Cypriot banks, and there are significant cracks in the internat'l banking system. Next stop Italy?

This could get Fast & Furious....

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeub...ed the bailout.

The gun to the head solution....

What will Russia and the BRIC's do in response? Currency wars getting interesting....

I've not been one to run away nor hide from things when the sht hits the fan, but this stuff scares me. Not just the Cypris crisis, because I don't view it as an isolated problem.

Are we really immune? Why don't I see our government putting the brakes on? Have we not reached the time when stopping the debt from growing is a primary concern? Why not?

Somebody will have to pay up at sometime.

The EU systemic cracks are growing rather quickly....



Cyprus is roughly 0.2% of EU GDP. What will happen when this piker inevitably defaults on its EUCB bond holders? What recourse will the well-heeled depositors (with total accounts that likely dwarf the Cypriot GDP) have against this pip squeak country?

It will be interesting to see what the Cypriot government can work out since the parliment voted against the EU proposal.

It won't be a collapse, but a slow crumble, with this incident being just one crumb.

Sad, but spot on.

So much for *trust*....

In Case you Missed Bernanke's response to this question today:

Journalist: I was wondering if you can tell me how if a run on the banks happens in Cyprus, how that might affect U.S. markets. And also is it possible for the U.S. to levy a tax on regular deposits here? Or why not?


Bernanke: As someone mentioned Cyprus is a tiny economy. I don’t think these issues as worrisome as they are and as concerned as we would be for the Cyprus people, I don’t think that they have a direct implications for the U.S. economy.
The only way that they would create a problem would be if the runs became contagious in some sense, if depositors in other countries lost confidence. But to this point I’m not aware of any evidence that that is in fact the case.
The argument the Europeans are making is that Cyprus is a unique situation, very different situation, and indeed, it is quite unusual to have a banking sector as large as they have relative to their economy.
In terms of the United States, the FDIC was founded in 1934, and we have insured deposits and they are very proud of the fact that no one has ever lost a dime in insured deposits.
And during the crisis the response of the government was in fact to increase the level of deposit or account sizes that were insured. So I consider that to be extremely unlikely in the United States.

My Observation:
I was aghast that Bernanke did not make a definitive statement against the ECB and IMF theft. Not surprised especially, but amazed that he did not say something more equivocating. He condoned it, he knows it is an ace up his sleeve (should he need it) and believes that deferring the question with euphemisms will keep the U.S. and Europe cash in deposits intact. An incredible failure due to hubris.

His condoning and equivocation is an UNMISTAKABLE SIGNAL THAT HE VIEWS THIS THEFT AS AN ACCEPTABLE POLICY TOOL.

Period.

Trust me, if anyone in the world pays extra special attention to every syllable that exits his mouth, and what it means or could be interpreted as meaning, It's Bernanke.

Just wait, until it hits the fan.

A trillion dollar coin will fix everything.

Edited.

One could read too much into Bernanke's statement of "the FDIC was founded in 1934, and we have insured deposits and they are very proud of the fact that no one has ever lost a dime in insured deposits."

With the end of the Transaction Account Guarantee program (TAG) deposit insurance on business checking accounts has gone from unlimited to $250,000. Anything over that is not FDIC insured. My bank, and others, have joined up in a system that participates deposits in excess of $250,000 to other member banks to essentially give our clients unlimited FDIC insurance, up to roughly $20 million. While we don't have many participants at this time, that list is growing.

This has been a concern of a number of our clients over the past 6 years of so when the first rumblings of this turmoil started to be felt.

What goes up....