Cyprus Bailout: First Confiscation and “Corralito” in Eurozone

So bankers are being bailed out while the people of Cyprus (and thousands of expats) that worked hard, made sacrifices for years are left to pick up the tab.  If you saved over € 100.000, you get a 10% “tax” (some people in the streets of Cyprus are calling it theft), if you have less than  €100.000, its  6.25%. Lets suppose you just got a loan for € 100.000 to start a new business, same thing happens, you lose 10% and still have to pay back in full.  Its noticeable how ordinary people that save money, try to invest or start a new business get punished while banks, and make no mistake the banks in Cyprus are branches of the exact same banks that are found in the rest of EU and USA, those get to steal people’s money.

Walk into a bank with a gun and demand money and you are a bank robber. Make a few phone calls and steal billions worth of people’s savings and you’re an Executive Board member.

How to Orchestrate Mass Theft:

The mechanism that takes place is the same one so often discussed here.

1)The measure is usually announced Saturday Morning. When people rush to those banks operating on Saturdays for a few hours, they find those branches conveniently closed. Oh, by the way, there’ just happens to be a Bank Holyday on Monday.

2)The limit on ATM is € 1000. Its not the banks fault if people empty those ATMs in a matter of minutes, or if they … “forgot”… to top up some ATMs the day before. Oops!

3) You cant use online banking and transfer your savings out of there.  For the thousands of ordinary people, and especially for many Russian millionaires and those in Greece that though of Cyprus as safe off shore banking safe haven for their savings, you’ve just been punk’d!

A closed cooperative bank shop in Limassol, Cyprus.

So, who’s next?

Its hard not to be a bit concerned with the future of countries like Spain, Portugal and Greece, among others.

Europe is like a zoo struck by disaster where animals have run out of food. Who gets eaten first? the lion or the zebra, the tiger or the gazelle? They already ate the Guinea Pig and it tasted good.

FerFAL