Everyone know by now the novel method proposed for saving the banks in Cyprus, get the people to pay for their salvation after the banking industry was allowed to blossom to unheralded proportions.
A band of super-rich foreign tycoons who took Cypriot citizenship in recent decades – lured by a favourable tax regime – are expected to be among the hardest hit by the island's surprise deposit tax as several are believed to have been required to deposit at least €17m of their fortunes on the island to qualify for citizenship.
Billionaires attracted to the island by the controversial citizenship scheme, designed to court super-rich figures, include Norwegian-born oil tanker tycoon John Fredriksen, Israeli internet gambling entrepreneur Teddy Sagi, and Alexander Abramov, the Russian steel magnate who chairs FTSE 100 group Evraz.
Now some say that under the proposed theft that the rich will suffer the most.
Total and utter bullshit.
Bank deposits in Europe have are protected to the tune of 100,000 Euros by law.
Say you have life savings of €90,000.
Under the theft proposal you would lose €6075.
If the banks had been allowed to collapse you would have lost nothing.
Say you have stashed €10,000,000 to avoid scrutiny
Under the theft proposal you would lose €1,000,000
If the banks had been allowed to collapse you would have lost up to €9,900,000
Many of those that supported the measures in Germany, the IMF and the European Central bank have pointed to the level of corruption hidden in the two main banks in Cyprus to justify this heist.
True, yet this is not new nor unknown [at least the last twenty years] Cyprus was welcomed into the Union five years ago. No effort has been made to reform the banks in that time nor new regulations proposed for the latest scheme to work.
If it had been a socialist proposal, the assets of the banks would have been seized and then nationalized.
This is a purely plutocratic solution; to limit the losses of the wealthiest once again, and the noise coming out of Russia is bogus due to the fact that the rich do not want to lose one red cent.
The noise coming from our governments in Europe is "but, but this is a unique situation, it won't happen anywhere else."
It wont happen again because they don't think it is a good idea, they won't do it again because it is one bloody step too far and the backlash would be brutal.
It was a trial balloon to see if anyone was awake.
2:36 AM PT: What could this Plan B entail? One rumour is that deposits under €20,000 would be exempt from the tax - which would pacify concerns that poorer Cypriot are being hit. Another option, of course, is to start the tax at €100,000, which would mean hiking the rate for larger deposits -- otherwise the maths doesn't add up.
Follow the story here
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
The whole thing is still a sham.