Cyprus confiscation of percentage of bank accounts

Mike

The Living Force
FOTCM Member
I've been doing some reading on the Cyprus plan to confiscate a percentage of bank accounts in that country as part of a bailout. Here is a link in case you haven't heard about it: http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=218812 Right now the government of Cyprus has postponed a vote implementing the 'tax' for Monday, which is a banking holiday in Cyprus.

This has the potential to start a bank run in Europe and I'm left wondering if this isn't the desired aim of such an act. Maybe it is just psychos doing what they do and not seeing the potential ramifications or could it be that such an act in a small country linked to Europe is planned to kick off economic turmoil worldwide? I know one of the first things I thought about after reading about it was should I take out cash from my bank account just in case.
 
This seems like kind of a big deal. The latest I've heard is no firm decision has been made on what percentages will be taken at what limits and the banks are set to remain closed until Thursday (March 21st, implied) http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-18/cyprus-bank-holiday-gets-another-extension-bank-reopening-now-set-thursday

I assume this will get its own thread in SOTT News Discussion at some point. And I know this is all basically theater when compared to the levels we are dealing with but somehow it still seems important to follow. Maybe because it tracks in real time the audience's relationship to the 4th wall and how it will be smashed or...something...
 
It's no coincidence that this "proposal" came on the table just 15 days after Anastasiades was elected to power. Otherwise known as "yes man" and "little Hitler" by those who don't support his extreme right wing party on the island. There is no way that the previews president, from the communist party of Cyprus, would even remain on the table to discuss this. He had good affiliations with the Russian government which helped a lot, not only economically, but politically also. Russians were using Cyprus for money laundering and as a tourist destination. But at the same time, when Cyprus found gas a couple of years back off its shores and Turkey was using its usual bullying tactics to get a piece of it, Israel and the US were hovering over to get a piece of it, Russia send a couple of submarines in the area to keep everyone "cool" in a way. Sure, they too wanted a piece of it, but the Cyprus people felt that at least a big nation had interests in their small country and they would back them up if something happened.

Now, with this so-called haircut, what the EU is doing is sending the Russians away. If the Russians take out of Cyprus all their investments and leave (financially and politically) Cyprus will be even in bigger depth, and politically more vulnerable than before. And there's a lot of gas at stake here, with many vultures circling around.

At least those are my thoughts when I question, Why Cyprus and Why Now? If they want to spread panic, and start the experiment of hair-cutting small before they implement it on larger governments, the current government of Cyprus is ideal (they are already trying to convince the other parties to vote Yes during the parliamentary meeting tomorrow) plus they are shooting at the Russians in a way.
 
Alana said:
Now, with this so-called haircut, what the EU is doing is sending the Russians away. If the Russians take out of Cyprus all their investments and leave (financially and politically) Cyprus will be even in bigger depth, and politically more vulnerable than before. And there's a lot of gas at stake here, with many vultures circling around.

At least those are my thoughts when I question, Why Cyprus and Why Now? If they want to spread panic, and start the experiment of hair-cutting small before they implement it on larger governments, the current government of Cyprus is ideal (they are already trying to convince the other parties to vote Yes during the parliamentary meeting tomorrow) plus they are shooting at the Russians in a way.

Here is Jim Sinclair's take on the Cyprus situation:
http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2013/3/18_Sinclair_-_All_Hell_Is_Breaking_Loose_After_Cyprus_Catastrophe.html

Basically he is saying that what is going to happen has the potential to really anger Russia, etc with many wider implications for the world. Maybe the move by the IMF, etc was coordinated and planned with the one idea in mind to get Russia/Russians to pull out of Cyprus?
 
Bear said:
Alana said:
Now, with this so-called haircut, what the EU is doing is sending the Russians away. If the Russians take out of Cyprus all their investments and leave (financially and politically) Cyprus will be even in bigger depth, and politically more vulnerable than before. And there's a lot of gas at stake here, with many vultures circling around.

At least those are my thoughts when I question, Why Cyprus and Why Now? If they want to spread panic, and start the experiment of hair-cutting small before they implement it on larger governments, the current government of Cyprus is ideal (they are already trying to convince the other parties to vote Yes during the parliamentary meeting tomorrow) plus they are shooting at the Russians in a way.

Here is Jim Sinclair's take on the Cyprus situation:
http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2013/3/18_Sinclair_-_All_Hell_Is_Breaking_Loose_After_Cyprus_Catastrophe.html

Basically he is saying that what is going to happen has the potential to really anger Russia, etc with many wider implications for the world. Maybe the move by the IMF, etc was coordinated and planned with the one idea in mind to get Russia/Russians to pull out of Cyprus?

That's what I am thinking, but who knows what their plans are truly?

Interesting take by Sinclair. My mother called me today from the island in panic, but she also shared a few of the rumors going about that the current president is concerned about his life, which made me chuckle. His is a horrible man, they were implicated in human trafficking business with his brother about a decade ago but were never prosecuted, not enough evidence or something like that. So the thought of a few ex-KGBs after him makes my day, but I am afraid that it is the poor populace that is going to pay the price in these games, as is always the case.
 
I just watched live the meeting at the Cyprus parliament house. All parties (except the president's party, who abstained) voted against the Eurogroup's "proposal". So the collective vote was "No".
 
Alana said:
I just watched live the meeting at the Cyprus parliament house. All parties (except the president's party, who abstained) voted against the Eurogroup's "proposal". So the collective vote was "No".

Wonder what is going to happen now? Something to keep a close watch on. In other news, looks like New Zealand is looking at going after savers when banks fail.

http://www.silverdoctors.com/contagion-depositor-haircut-bail-ins-spread-to-new-zealand-govt-discussing-cyprus-style-solution-for-bank-failure/#more-23498
 
Alana said:
I just watched live the meeting at the Cyprus parliament house. All parties (except the president's party, who abstained) voted against the Eurogroup's "proposal". So the collective vote was "No".

I was surprised by that, for a while it seemed the politicians would just nod it through, but I suppose this is crossing a line and perhaps the public reaction was not anticipated. It really is hard to believe just how chaotic a situation has been created out of nowhere. Either they want a mass revolt or the elite are completely out of touch with a society that is struggling to make ends meet.
Bear said:
Wonder what is going to happen now? Something to keep a close watch on. In other news, looks like New Zealand is looking at going after savers when banks fail.

http://www.silverdoctors.com/contagion-depositor-haircut-bail-ins-spread-to-new-zealand-govt-discussing-cyprus-style-solution-for-bank-failure/#more-23498

Yeah, the 'where next?' question is cropping up elsewhere.
 
Alana said:
My mother called me today from the island in panic, but she also shared a few of the rumors going about that the current president is concerned about his life, which made me chuckle. His is a horrible man, they were implicated in human trafficking business with his brother about a decade ago but were never prosecuted, not enough evidence or something like that. So the thought of a few ex-KGBs after him makes my day, but I am afraid that it is the poor populace that is going to pay the price in these games, as is always the case.

Always fascinating to hear what is happening from those on the ground. Be interested in hearing what you mother thinks about the chances of a run on the bank when they eventually open.
 
I was on skype with both my mother and brother while watching the parliament meeting live yesterday, and they were worried about what tomorrow will bring, but relieved with the decision. We agreed that leaving the EU and the euro would be the best solution and that letting a couple of banks close down won't be the end of the world, if we take Iceland as an example. But economic analysts we are not, nor do we make the decisions, so we will have to wait and see what those in power come up with. Two of the major parties proposed yesterday to get out of the dealings with the Troika and just figure on their own what to do about their domestic financial problems.

I read today that the archbishop of Cyprus is willing to give to the government all the church's assets to help the country from going bankrupt. If this is true, it would actually help since the church is the "wealthiest business" on the island. Heck, Vatican alone could bailout ALL European countries that are struggling right now! But no, their "christian" way is to sit on top of this wealth and preach against homosexuality, excuse pedophilia, and leave the rest of the world starving! Disgusting old men..... :barf:
 
Alana said:
We agreed that leaving the EU and the euro would be the best solution and that letting a couple of banks close down won't be the end of the world, if we take Iceland as an example.

Rampant greed plays a part, and so could the anti-Russian angle. Whichever Cypriot banks are 'let' close down, it will only be thanks to backroom deals where other banks snap up their assets on the cheap and move in to take over their turf. If the 'laws of economics' were allowed to run their course, all the 'too big to fail' banks would have closed down by now and the U.S. would have declared bankruptcy.

It's important to remember that 'economics', 'economy' and 'currencies' are contrived concepts, especially today. I think that unless and until the EU as a whole collapses, leaving the euro isn't an option. The Eurozone, like the EU, is a political project. The goal is submission and control. I think that's why they 'invited' so many new members in the 2000s, and why they never seriously discussed Greece or the other peripheral countries leaving the EU or the Eurozone (Ireland, Portugal, etc). Instead, they are 'rehabilitating' Greece through economic shock therapy, breaking down its social cohesiveness through mass trauma.

There are only so many goods in the real economy, but in the fake economy that sits above the real one, numbers are manipulated to make 'austerity measures' seem like the only way forward. All the wealth is sucked upwards and inwards by those at the top who are not productive members of society. There is no shortage of money. In a way, money really does grow on trees. The ECB just prints money whenever it wants to. Actually, it doesn't even do that. Like the Federal Reserve, it just adds digits to its electronic balance sheets. This 'sleight of hand' of adding accounting entries creates 'debt' that must be repaid using the real money circulating out there, with interest, by the people to their government, which collects it on behalf of the banking system.

All countries in the Western Banking System are 'in debt' - that's the foundation of the entire system. From that baseline, the Powers That Be can call in their debts wherever and whenever they want to. Maybe they do it over here because they want to put pressure on this leader who is stepping out of line; maybe they do it over there because they want to test the population's response; maybe they just do it because they can. Even in 'normal times', when things are relatively stable, because they have built into the system a permanent shortage of money, stress is permanently being applied on people. Hypothetically, if every single loan (in any given Western banking system) was called-in and everyone tried to pay it, there would not be enough money to pay for both the principal of each loan and the interest on the loan.

It's like musical chairs, and every now and then, they remove another chair or two by calling in some of the debt 'owed' to them and shrinking the money supply, forcing the normal people in the real economy to work harder to satisfy the greed of the psychopaths running the fake economy.
 
http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/two-main-cyprus-banks-slash-175008168.html
12 hours ago
The two main banks at the centre of Cyprus's financial crisis slashed the daily cash withdrawal limits from ATM (Taiwan OTC: 3423.TWO - news) machines on Sunday, state media reported.

With queues growing outside cash machines across the island, Laiki (Popular (NasdaqGS: BPOP - news) ) Bank cut maximum withdrawals at ATMs to 100 euros a day and the Bank of Cyprus reduced its limit to 120 euros a day, the Cyprus News Agency said.

Laiki bank, Cyprus's second biggest lender, had already restricted withdrawals to 260 euros a day on Thursday after its ATMs were besieged by customers drawing their previous daily limits of 700 euros. [...]

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/small-explosion-cash-machine-cyprus-233905478.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
5 hours ago
Cyprus, the EU and IMF have agreed a new draft proposal to finance a rescue of the country's economy, an EU official said.

The plan, which will now be presented to eurozone finance ministers for discussion, will involve setting up a "good bank" and a "bad bank" and will mean that Popular Bank of Cyprus, known as Laiki, will effectively be shut down.

Deposits below 100,000 euros in Laiki will be transferred to Bank of Cyprus. Deposits above 100,000 euros, which under EU law are not insured, will be frozen and will be used to resolve debt.


It remains unclear how large the writedown on those funds will be.

The EU spokesman said there would be no "levy" imposed on any Cypriot banks, with the package requiring a full "bail-in" of uninsured depositors, which is likely to mean heavy losses for those with large holdings in Laiki and potentially Bank of Cyprus, where many Russians hold bank accounts.

Cypriot parliament spokesperson Yiannakis Omirou said: "It seems that the whole process is nearing an agreement. A proposal is taking shape, an agreement, a programme ... that will put in the next half hour, or hour, to the Eurogroup."

It came as a small home-made bomb went off at a cash point in Limassol, according to unconfirmed reports.

Bank Of Cyprus Bomb Explosion Reported In Limassol
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/24/bank-of-cyprus-bomb-explosion_n_2945637.html
An explosion has occurred outside of a Bank of Cyprus branch in Limassol, according to sources enikos.gr and SigmaLive.

The blast was caused by an "improvised explosive device," according to an English translation of the SigmaLive report. A YouTube video available from NewsitCy Cyprus, available above, appears to show the aftermath of the explosion.

Per an initial Google translation of the enikos.gr article, "the blast destroyed the window of a branch of the Bank and created small fire which katasvistike from the Fire. The area has been blocked by the Cypriot police." The enikos.gr story also reports an additional explosion.

According to The Guardian, there have been "no reports of any injuries." Cyprus yesterday agreed to a levy on some deposits at the Bank of Cyprus, Reuters reports.

NewsitCy Cyprus has more (via a Google translation):

"According to information from our correspondent Elena Georgiou in Limassol, two masked men broke into the main entrance of the bank and threw with Liberian container with flammable material in the branch. Their movements were recorded by closed circuit monitoring of the bank and assessed by the police."
 
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/25/eurozone-cyprus-muddle-idUSL5N0CG13920130325
While ordinary Cypriots queued at ATM machines to withdraw a few hundred euros as credit card transactions stopped, other depositors used an array of techniques to access their money.

No one knows exactly how much money has left Cyprus' banks, or where it has gone. The two banks at the centre of the crisis - Cyprus Popular Bank, also known as Laiki, and Bank of Cyprus - have units in London which remained open throughout the week and placed no limits on withdrawals. Bank of Cyprus also owns 80 percent of Russia's Uniastrum Bank, which put no restrictions on withdrawals in Russia. Russians were among Cypriot banks' largest depositors.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-24/cyprus-said-to-reach-tentative-deal-to-avert-default-euro-exit.html
Deposits below the EU deposit-guarantee ceiling of 100,000 euros will be protected, and a loss of no more than 40 percent will be imposed on uninsured depositors at the Bank of Cyprus, two EU officials said. Uninsured depositors at Cyprus Popular (Laiki) would largely be wiped out, two other officials said.

If both of these statements turn out to be true, then IMO this would indicate a financial attack on the upper middle-class of Cyprus--for them this is a disaster since they were not able to move their money out of the Cyprus banks and are now facing either a 40% reduction or total loss of any deposits greater than 100K Euro.

Understandably, the youth of Cyprus now begin to protest:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/26/us-cyprus-parliament-idUSBRE92G03I20130326
"They've just gotten rid of all our dreams, everything we've worked for, everything we've achieved up until now, what our parents have achieved," said a student who gave his name as Thomas.

In addition, capital controls on what funds are left in the banks are set to go on for weeks or months, if not years (if and when the banks do reopen). In fact, if large depositors have withdrawn the bulk of their deposits, it puts additional pressure on the remaining deposit holders to come up with the required funds for the EU bailout package. This could mean even greater losses for those "on the hook".

The Global Bankers are sending a very clear message to anyone with uninsured (or insured) funds in any bank regulated by a Central Bank - including EU and, peripherally, American citizens: "If you have funds deposited in a bank that is insolvent, we can take your deposits to cover the losses." This is precedent setting. Whether it is a scare tactic to get people to re-invest their money in other assets; will actually be used again; or both is anyone's guess.
 
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Jim Sinclair

Jim Sinclair is primarily a precious metals specialist and a commodities and foreign currency trader. He founded the Sinclair Group of Companies (1977), which offered full brokerage services in stocks, bonds, and other investment vehicles. The companies, which operated branches in New York , Kansas City, Toronto , Chicago , London and Geneva , were sold in 1983.

From 1981 to 1984, Mr. Sinclair served as a Precious Metals Advisor to Hunt Oil and the Hunt family for the liquidation of their silver position as a prerequisite for the $1 billion loan arranged by the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Paul Volcker.

He was also a General Partner and Member of the Executive Committee of two New York Stock Exchange firms and President of Sinclair Global Clearing Corporation (commodity clearing firm) and Global Arbitrage (derivative dealer in metals and currencies).

In April 2002, shareholders of Tanzanian Royalty Exploration (formerly Tan Range Exploration) approved the acquisition of Tanzania American International, a company managed by the Sinclair family. Following this transaction, Mr. Sinclair became Chairman of Tanzanian Royalty and now leads its efforts to become a gold producer and royalty company.

He has authored numerous magazine articles and three books dealing with a variety of investment subjects, including precious metals, trading strategies and geopolitical events, and their relationship to world economics and the markets. He is a frequent and enormously popular speaker at gold investment conferences and his commentary on gold and other financial issues garners extensive media coverage at home and abroad.

In January 2003, Mr. Sinclair launched, “Jim Sinclair’s MineSet” which now hosts his gold commentary and is intended as a free service to the gold community.

Now latest post
Posted April 6th, 2013 by Jim Sinclair

You must now act to exit the system


The US has already put in place bail-in-like powers as part of the Dodd-Frank financial reform act passed last year. The law includes a resolution scheme that gives regulators the ability to impose losses on bondholders while ensuring the critical parts of the bank can keep running.

Employees would be paid, the lights would stay on and derivatives contracts would not have to be instantly unwound.


I have given my all to communicating the most important conclusions concerning your future financially and therefore on every level of life.

1. The operation to depress the gold price since the high was limited in time and is now behind us in terms of maximum pain for the bulls.

2. You must exit the system immediately because the Financial Nazis struck in Cyprus and now are moving directly towards you. This is simple fact, which if you ignore will be akin to the rise of the Nazis in Germany for those that knew they should, but never made the decision to leave that system.

The saddest fact is that many of you have thrown away your gold share and bullion insurances to the enriched Bankster bullies. You will now pay no attention to the need to exit the system. It is as if you are moths attracted to the flame of danger, and a sloth in that you are too lazy to take the actions required to protect yourselves. If you do not pay attention to this interview you are going to sacrifice all you have worked to accomplish in your lives. Most certainly those that are planning any form of retirement are right now dancing on the head of a needle.

Here are a few most important actions you, in my opinion, must take.

Government sponsored retirement tax preferential retirement programs must realize that one of the IMF plans in Cyprus was to nationalize all retirement programs. That means steal your retirement funds and assets, replacing them with some form of future paper assuming Cyprus returns to solvency.

You must, in my opinion, face whatever tax consequences there are and close your retirement programs. You are in clear and present danger of confiscation for questionable paper of whatever you hold in these type accounts. In a financial sense you are exactly what the ghettos in Germany and Poland were when they knew they should run but found any excuse possible not to do what was logically screaming at them to take action.

I am screaming at you from every pulpit I can find, with no personal benefit that you must take various actions and take them now. The fact the IMF, a major international body, had the audacity to demand that Cyprus nationalize all it pensioners and confiscate large percentages of the account values should be like a flashbulb going off in your eye to wake you from your sheeple slumber.

Bite the bullet.
Pay the tax.
Get your assets back.
Get out of the system.

The next action you must take is to get as far away from social media, and the use of credit cards for everything because you are painting a picture for the tax collectors that are going to go ballistic in their effort to collect your money from you in order to create revenue for governments going broke, or who are already hiding the fact they are broke.

It might take some effort, but stop your kids from informing the world of everything you and they have done on their social media. Computer based comparisons of family income to family activities will spur punitive audits when the apparent expenses are greater than the combined declared income.

The revenues services of every country are cranking up their computer search programs to grab information. You must stop so freely providing information, and maybe bragging on social media to make others think your lives are better than they really are. You must turn off the switch on your children use of social media if they are still under your authority. You must suggest to your emancipated children that they are foolish in informing the world of every little thing that do in search of 1000 friends on social media that would not really give a damn if they had a problem.

As an example of the new high tech snoops you are feeding with your credit cards and social media, research the following article.

IRS High-Tech Tools Track Your Digital Footprints – Yahoo! Finance

– Charting and analyzing social media such as Facebook
– Targeting audits by matching tax filings to social media or electronic payments
– Tracking individual Internet addresses and emailing patterns
– Sorting data in 32,000 categories of metadata and 1 million unique "attributes"
– Machine learning across "neural" networks
– Statistical and agent-based modeling
– Relationship analysis based on Social Security numbers and other personal identifiers

Click here to read the full article…

You must eliminate to the greatest degree possible all the agents between you and your assets.

There is no question that leaving assets in street name with your brokers and bankers is a financial death wish. The preferred way of holding shares of stocks has always been in your own name as physical certificates. The second best method, but much better than street name, is to hold your shares in Direct Registration. Do not expect your banks, brokers or companies you are invested in to make it easy to get out of their system. They will fight you all the way, but you have to insist on your rights regardless of their refusal or false dire warning of negative circumstances when you succeed in demanding your rights. Most of it exaggerations of what is really minutia when it comes to protecting yourselves.

Large credit balances in the form of banking accounts in CDs or in pure cash is now holding up a red blanket for the fighting confection bull of governments seeking your assets to hold off their financial collapse from their own spending sins of decades.

We can discuss in open forum, face to face or in writing later what to do with your assets but right now, as Braveheart cried, they must have FREEDOM from the system. There is much more that needs to be done, but what you have here is what should be called first priority. This should be viewed as call to action. I have not been too much off the mark on calling the developments not only of the past 12 years, but for the entirety of my successful career of more than 50 years in finance.

You ignore me at your own severe personal risk.
 
Yes, he has been saying this for some time now - and I think he is right. When collapse comes, "All paper (promises) will burn" - including currencies. Wherever the world's gold sits at that time, will define ownership. All paper claims on gold will be void.

He believes that the system will reset in much the same way as described at fofoa.blogspot.com. The only way to understand this "reset" is to spend time at this site where all aspects are discussed in the context of monetary history (as well as the warnings that were published by insiders more than a decade ago).

My own feeling is that all of this is being "engineered" to leave the masses (broke and) dependent on a new world currency that will be transitioned to a digital one - yielding complete control in the hands of those that create it.
 
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