Savings Tax

[Kathy]

Get ready for trouble!

This Tuesday, in Cyprus, a new precedent will
become reality:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2013/03/1
7/cypress-surprise-savings-tax-europes-core-
problems-back-to-the-front-burner/

"Cyprus Surprise Savings Tax"

"The European Central Bank, International
Monetary Fund and Cyprus announced an
immediate and surprise tax of 6.75% to 9.95% on
savings accounts that will be withdrawn on
Tuesday morning (Monday is a holiday in
Cyprus). It should raise about 5.8 billion Euros or
$7.5 billon. It seems the ECB and IMF have
decided to take depositors money vs.
restructuring debt so that Cyprus could qualify for
a 10 billion Euro (about $13 billon) bailout."

All savings accounts with banks in Cyprus will be
taxed. Those under $130,000 6.75 percent, over
will be taxed 9.95 percent - automatically
withdrawn from these accounts without
permission from the owners.

So what do you think of this? I do not expect the
banks of Cyprus to remain open for very long after
this sanctioned theft, as people (especially the
foreigners with their money in these banks - an
estimated 40 percent of these accounts) will
quickly withdraw what remains left to them of
THEIR savings and move it to banks outside
Cyprus - as locals stuff their mattresses with with
their remaining cash (potentially useless euros).

Ah yes, but what is this of my concern you ask?

Governments everywhere around the world are
dragging their local taxpayer/citizens into
budgetary DEFICITS, Alberta included! After
balancing the budget under Klein, seceding
Premiers have spent like there is no tomorrow,
buying votes and padding the pockets of friends,
family and close business partners.

While families struggle to balance their own
books, our governments both federally and
provincially, have been selling out our national
sovereignty to international agreements,
regulations and various pacts; thus making
Canadian citizens subject to international treaties
that supercede our own countries legislation.

If we as a nation condone this theft of private
citizens' savings to pay for Government
mismanagement, we condemn ourselves to the
very same treatment - a little further down the
road.

While you ponder on this dilemma, I encourage
you to sit down with your family (the older kids)
and watch a you tube video called "Invisible
Empire", link;

Invisible Empire A New World Order Defined Full
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=NO24XmP1c5E

After watching this documentary, you might begin
to realize what the ultimate plan is, where are we
headed, and who is taking us down this repugnant
path.

This savings tax, in Cyprus, may be just the
beginning. A government with a chronic over-
spending habit need only squeeze its citizen a
little harder to pay its debt. Sooner or later, the
citizen/victim is no longer able to breathe and
dies. But that's OK because there are billions of
victims/citizens left to replace the dead - just so
long as the Government survives.

[grassfarmer]

Certainly an unprecedented act but at the end of the
day it really isn't that different to raising taxes to the
level that would reduce the bank accounts of the
richest by close to 10%. Taxing only savers rather
than earners of course. Given that Cyprus has been a
tax haven for overseas investors a lot of this money
can be taken without costing the Government a vote -
they can only do it once though as that offshore
money will be going elsewhere now.

[rkaiser]

"It is difficult to describe the weekend bailout package to Cyprus in any other way. The confiscation of 6.75 percent of small depositors' money and 9.9 percent of big depositors' funds is without precedence that I can think of in a supposedly civilised and democratic society. But maybe the European Union (EU) is no longer a civilised democracy?

I heard rumours about this when I visited Limassol last week, but dismissed them as completely outlandish. And yet, here we are. The consequences are unpredictable, but we are clearly looking at a significant paradigm shift.

This is a breach of fundamental property rights, dictated to a small country by foreign powers and it must make every bank depositor in Europe shiver. Although the representatives at the bailout press conference tried to present this as a one-off, they were not willing to rule out similar measures elsewhere - not that it would have mattered much as the trust is gone anyway. It is now difficult to expect any kind of limitation to what measures the Troika and EU might take when the crisis really starts to bite.

if you can do this once, you can do it again. if you can confiscate 10 percent of a bank customer's money, you can confiscate 25, 50 or even 100 percent. I now believe we will see worse as the panic increases, with politicians desperately trying to keep the EUR alive.

Depositors in other prospective bailout countries must be running scared - is it safe to keep money in an Italian, Spanish or Greek bank any more? I dont know, must be the answer. Is it prudent to take the risk? You decide. I fear this will lead to massive capital outflows from weak Eurozone countries, just about the last thing they need right now. Even from the EU as a whole, I suspect, as the banking union is in place in most countries already.



This is a major, MAJOR game changer and the fallout will be with us for a long time to come. I believe it could be the beginning of the end for the Eurozone as this is an unbelievable blow to the already challenged trust that might be left among investors. Talk about a possible own goal.

Market reaction? it must be very good for gold - and for safe-haven countries like Switzerland, Singapore and economically more healthy non-Euro contries in, for example, Scandinavia. I would think the EUR and associated markets will be undermined by increasing lack of confidence when the full implications become clear for investors.

This is full-blown socialism and I still cannot believe this really happened."

Randy thoughts - I see some good in this Kathi as it will cause the demise of the EU. This attempt to organise countries under one banner is failing and that is a good thing over all ---- I believe.

[cpallett]

Beats the alternative. No EU bailout, the Cypriot banks go bust, and the small savers lose every nickel.

Given that about 20% of the deposits in Cypriot banks come from Russia (most suspected of being money laundering) the fallout should be most interesting.

[rkaiser]

anagnorasis and peripeteia

[ASRG]

Don't give Redford any ideas!

[cpallett]

It is all Greek to me. Tragic.

[Kathy]

"the Republic of Cyprus was a founding member
of the Non-Aligned Movement until it joined the
European Union on 1 May 2004.[28][29] On 1
January 2008, the Republic of Cyprus joined the
Eurozone."

What about returning to its pre 2004 currency?

Seems if they can't have their own currency, they
won't have anything. Roll back the clock, their
banks are already junk status. Give the people
Cyprus currency, within Cyprus it will have value.
They can sell their gas for whatever currency they
wish.

[rkaiser]

agreed Kathi. Same in Italy - Greece - Spain. etc. The E.U. is a failure. Let it die.

Only problem in Cypress will be all the people who had jobs in the banking industry. Anyone above a teller will have a job in some other country playing the game I am sure.

[grassfarmer]

Agreed Kathy, I always was opposed to the EU being
anything other the "common market" that it was set
up to be originally. Most of this one currency - one
set of rules, established by unelected officials is really
about establishing a superstate under German rule.
We stopped them from achieving that goal twice in
the 20th century and I see no need to concede in the
21st.