EU BANKS / GOV SEIZING ACCOUNT FUNDS

http://www.prisonplanet.com/confiscation-panicked-europeans-rush-atms-as-leaders-move-to-seize-funds-directly-from-bank-account-holders.html

Panicked Europeans Rush ATMs as Leaders Seize Funds Directly From Bank Account Holders

Mac Slavo
SHTFplan.com
March 17, 2013

Over the last few years political and financial leaders in Europe and the United States have implemented policies, regulations and bailouts costing global taxpayers trillions of dollars with the promise that these measures would lead to economic growth and recovery.

What happened in Europe today is yet further proof that nothing they’ve done has fixed the underlying fundamental issues surrounding the events that led to the crash of 2008.

For those who don’t believe the government is prepared to take extreme measures that may include the seizing of retirement accounts, cash savings or even gold, look no further than Cyprus, the latest recipient of bank bailouts.

As of right now, citizens of Cyprus are scrambling to withdraw funds from their bank accounts after the EU, with agreement from the Cypriot government, announced they will decimate funds held in personal bank accounts to the tune of up to 10% of existing deposits.

You read that right.

The European Union has made the determination that the people of Cyprus are now responsible for the hundreds of billions of dollars in bad bets made by their government and bank financiers, and they are moving to confiscate money directly from the bank accounts of every citizen in the country.

Restrictions have been imposed to stop people emptying their accounts or moving their money out the country after the Cypriot government announced that up to ten per cent of deposits will be seized and used to bailout the island’s crisis-hit banking system.

The deal with other eurozone finance ministers is the first time that ordinary citizens’ deposits have been directly raided in this way.

…

One furious expat said: ‘This is plain theft. I’d love to hear someone explain to me why it isn’t.’

…

Under the deal, all bank deposits over €100,000 will be hit with a levy of 9.9 per cent. Those with smaller savings will pay 6.75 per cent.

…

The move sparked panic and violent protests yesterday as crowds desperately tried to withdraw their money at cash machines.

…

‘Why would you risk putting your money in Greek, Spanish or Portuguese banks after this?’

British expats were stunned by the news, with many left high and dry by the restrictions on accounts.

Cash machines had been working, but many ran out of notes because of the panic withdrawals.

…

But financial experts said the raid – designed to stop Cyprus crashing out of the euro, potentially destroying the currency – would send shock waves through the eurozone.

If savers in other troubled nations fear their accounts might be next, they could withdraw their money and spark a catastrophic run on the banks.

Source: Daily Mail

They’re calling it a “tax.”

As Market Ticker’s Karl Denninger notes, “Like hell that’s a tax. That’s direct confiscation of the funds of people who did nothing wrong!”

It should now be obvious. There is no recovery. There never was.

No matter where you live, your government is likely preparing measures to deal with the coming financial and economic collapse. This means they are going to be coming for anything of value that they can get their hands on.

If you have the majority of your net worth allocated in bank accounts, money market funds, retirement plans, stock markets or the host of other ‘safe’ assets recommended by your financial adviser, then you are playing Russian roulette.

And in this version there’s a bullet in every chamber.

When they come, they will take everything they can.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/saxo-bank-ceo-this-is-full-blown-socialism-and-i-still-cant-believe-it-happened.html

Saxo Bank CEO: “This Is Full-Blown Socialism And I Still Can’t Believe It Happened”

Zero Hedge
March 17, 2013

Authored by Lars Seier Christensen, CEO Saxo Bank; originally posted at his blog at TradingFloor.com,

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.

Another open question is what will happen to the huge number of brokerages based in Cyprus? There is about 100 or more FX and other brokers currently operating under the relatively light Cypriot regulation. How will this impact the trustworthiness of these many small institutions? What IS the exact impact on the client deposits they might be holding in Cyprus? Will anyone dare to do business with them going forward?



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 countries 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.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/europe-does-it-again-cyprus-depositor-haircut-bailout-turns-into-saver-panic-frozen-assets-bank-runs-broken-atms.html


Cyprus Depositor Haircut “Bailout” Turns Into Saver “Panic”, Frozen Assets, Bank Runs, Broken ATMs

• 
  

Europe Does It Again

Zero Hedge
March 17, 2013

Europe has done it again.



Late last night, after markets closed for the weekend, following an
extended discussion the European finance ministers announced their
“bailout” solution for Russian oligarch depositor-haven Cyprus: a €13
billion bailout (Europe’s fifth) with a huge twist: the implementation
of what has been the biggest taboo in European bailouts to date - the impairment of depositors, and a fresh, full blown escalation in the status quo’s war against savers everywhere.

Specifically, Cyprus will impose a levy of 6.75% on deposits of less
than €100,000 – the ceiling for European Union account insurance, which
is now effectively gone following this case study – and 9.9% above that.
The measures will raise €5.8 billion, Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen
Dijsselbloem, who leads the group of euro-area ministers, said.

But it doesn’t stop there: a partial “bail-in” of junior bondholders
is also possible, as for the first time ever the entire liability
structure of a European bank – even if it is a Cypriot bank – is open
season for impairments. The logical question: why here, and why now?
And what happens when the Cypriot bank run that has taken the country
by storm this morning spreads everywhere else, now that the scab over
Europe’s biggest festering wound is torn throughout the periphery as all
the other PIIGS realize they too are expendable on the altar of
mollifying voters and investors in the other countries that make up
Europe’s disunion.

Bloomberg’s take on the sacrifice of Cyprus’ savers:

Officials have struggled to find an agreement that would
rescue Cyprus, which accounts for just half of a percent of the euro
region’s economy, without unsettling investors in larger countries and
sparking a new round of market contagion. Policy makers began meeting at
5 p.m. yesterday in a hastily convened gathering, seeking to overcome
differences on bondholder losses while financial markets were closed.

“Further measures concern the increase of the withholding tax on
capital income, a restructuring and recapitalisation of banks, an
increase of the statutory corporate income tax rate and a bail-in of
junior bondholders,” according to a communique released by ministers
after the talks. It didn’t specify whether bank or sovereign bond
holders could be affected.

The European Central Bank will use its existing facilities to make
funds available to Cypriot banks as needed to counter potential bank
runs. Depositors will receive bank equity as compensation.

Finance Minister Michael Sarris said the plan was the “least onerous” of the options Cyprus faced to stay afloat.

“It’s not a pleasant outcome, especially of course for the people
involved,” said Sarris. The Cypriot parliament will convene tomorrow to
vote on legislation needed for the bailout.

Needless to say, the locals are delighted:

In the coastal town of Larnaca, where irate depositors
queued early to withdraw money from cash machines, co-op credit
societies that are normally open on Saturdays stayed closed.

“I’m extremely angry. I worked years and years to get it
together and now I am losing it on the say-so of the Dutch and the
Germans,” said British-Cypriot Andy Georgiou, 54, who returned to Cyprus in mid-2012 with his savings.

“They call Sicily the island of the mafia. It’s not Sicily, it’s Cyprus. This is theft, pure and simple,” said a pensioner.

For the real response, look to Russia:

The island’s bailout had repeatedly been delayed amid
concerns from other EU states that its close business relations with
Russia, and a banking system flush with Russian cash, made it a conduit
for money-laundering.

“My understanding is that the Russian government is ready to make a
contribution with an extension of the loan and a reduction of the
interest rate,” said the EU’s top economic official, Olli Rehn.

Almost half of [Cyprus'] depositors are believed to be non-resident Russians, but most of those queuing on Saturday at automatic teller machines to pull out cash appeared to be Cypriots.

While “saving”, pardon the pun, yet another insolvent country merely
has the intent of keeping it in the Eurozone, and thus preserving
Europe’s doomed monetary block and bank equity for a little longer, this
idiotic plan will achieve two things: i) infuriate not just Russians
but very wealthy, and very trigger-happy Russians. The revenge of Gazpromia will
be short and swift, and we certainly would not want to be Europeans
next winter when the average heating level of Western European will
depend on the whims of Russian natural gas pipeline traffic; ii) start a
wave of bank runs first in Cyprus and soon everywhere else that has
the potential of being the next Cyrpus.

Sure enough, here come the bank runs:

While the tax on deposits will hurt wealthy Russians with
money in Cypriot banks, it will also sting ordinary citizens. Some ATMs
in the country have run out of cash, Erotokritos Chlorakiotis, general
manager of the Cooperative Central Bank, told state-run CYBC.

Forzen assets and “national bank holidays” are baaaaack:

Funds to pay the levy were frozen in accounts immediately, ECB Executive Board Member Joerg Asmussen said. The levy will be assessed before Cypriot banks reopen on March 19 after a March 18 national holiday. Sarris said electronic transfers will also be limited until then.

Europe’s response: this is a unique situation. Just like the Greek
bailout was unique; just like the Irish and Portuguese bailouts were
unique; just like the bailout of Spanish banks was unique.

“As it is a contribution to the financial stability of
Cyprus, it seems just to ask a contribution of all deposit holders,”
Dijsselbloem said, noting the country’s financial industry was five
times the size of its economy. The plan includes “unique measures” that
address the “exceptional nature” of Cyprus and show “inflexible
commitment to financial stability and the integrity of the euro area.”

Curiously, even everyone’s favorite liar, former Eurogroup president,
Jean-Claude Juncker, has a warning that this “bailout” is the worst
thing Europe could have done:

Skeptics including Luxembourg’s Jean-Claude Juncker had
said that imposing investor losses in Cyprus risked reigniting the
financial crisis that has so far pushed five of the euro zone’s 17
members to seek aid. Last year, the euro area took what officials called
a unique step to ask Greek bondholders to absorb losses.

But fear not: Europe has promised this absolute resolution taboo won’t repeat itself…

When asked if a deposit assessment could be ruled out for
future rescues, Rehn said in an interview: “It can and there is no
concrete case where it should be considered.”

… Until it does repeat itself of course – after all the fundamental
problem for Europe has never been resolved: the continent is still
broke, and it still is running out of good, unencumbered assets (which
as being repledged by the banking oligarchy) with every passing day.

Now the only thing unknown is Russia’s response:

Corporate tax rates in Cyprus will rise to 12.5 percent
to 10 percent as part of the deal, Dijsselbloem said. Rehn told
reporters that Russia, whose banks have loaned as much as $40 billion to
Cypriot companies of Russian origin, would ease terms on its existing
loans to Cyprus as the rescue unfolds. Cyprus’s finance minister is
scheduled to fly to Moscow on March 20.

What is known, however is that Cypriots have taken the news in
stride…. and to their local ATM machine, which sadly is showing the
following message: “Your transaction has been cancelled due to a technical issue. This ATM cannot complete withdrawals at this time” (courtesy of Yannis Mouzakis).



It didn’t take long before the Cyrpus Cooperative bank issued a
statement saying “some ATMs run out of cash” – by some they likely mean
all as the entire country is now gripped in a full force depositor run.

Some other snapshots of what is currently happening in Cyrpus, where
locals are using excavators if not to force the ATMs into “compliance”
then to block bank entrances out of blind fury. From Philenews:

Indignant citizen who has the testimony of the
Cooperative Credit Society Kyperoundas, cut the morning the entrance of
the branch of the SEA, located on Avenue Nikos and Despina Pattichi in
Limassol.

He said he believes that deceived by the assurances that the relevant
deposits are insured citizens and decided how to express his protest,
parking the excavator outside the entrance of the branch of SEA

And more from iefimeirda:

With
the first light of day after the unprecedented decision to the
Eurogroup on the terms of the Memorandum of Agreement and the taxation
of savings, hundreds of people flocked to Cyprus stores credit cooperatives Larnaca to withdraw their deposits.

With the opening of stores found they could not withdraw all
their money, because the electronic system of credit cooperatives was
not working. And when it became possible, writes the Daily
Cyprus, the system seemed to finally hit the appropriate amount of the
new tax, which provoked strong reactions. Even after the government ordered the stores eventually closed.

At the same time, according to information or ATMs of banks give no money so that there is a huge inconvenience.

After lunch return to Cyprus President Papadopoulos Nikos
Anastasiadis from Brussels in the morning reached political agreement on
the rescue of the economy, while in the meantime the Presidential
prepares emergency meeting of ministers of the government.

According to all the information, will this weekend be submitted and
voted on bills in the form of urgency, before the banks opened Tuesday
morning.

In the text of the agreement, with the characteristic title “We
caught napping,” the website says Sigma Live Nicosia agreed terms “under
threat of closing banks.” painful Describing the agreement, Sigma
relies on sources from Brussels you speak of night thriller and roll
jams, and the Cypriot delegation warned even withdrawal from the
negotiations.

Congratulations Cyprus savers – you were just betrayed by both your
politicians, and by Europe – sorry, but you are the “creeping
impairments” in the game known as European bankruptcy. And so is anywhere between 6.75% and 9.9% of your money, which you were foolish enough to keep with your banks (where at least you were compensated with a savings yield of… 0%).

More importantly, as of this morning Europe has finally
grasped that there is a 6.75% to 9.9% premium to holding physical cash
in your mattress rather than having it stored with your local friendly
insolvent bank.

Luckily Cyrpus is so “small” what just happened there will never
happen anywhere else: after all in Europe nobody has ever heard of “setting an example”. Or so the thinking among Europe’s unthinking political elite goes.

And congratulations Europe: just when people almost believed you
things are “fixed” you go ahead and prove to the world that you are as disunified (because size doesn’t matter in a true union), as confused, as stupid and as broke as ever.




[color:d30e=#333]This article was posted: Sunday, March 17, 2013 at 7:53 am

http://www.prisonplanet.com/after-cyprus-who-is-next.html

After Cyprus, Who Is Next?



Zero Hedge
March 17, 2013

Short answer: we don’t know.

We do, however, know something we have been pointing out since early
2012 – when it comes to the funding structure of European banks, there
is a dramatic difference between the US and Europe. In the US, as we
showedmost recently two months ago, the Big Three depositor banks (JPM, Wells and Bank of America, excluding the still pseudo-nationalized Citi), have a record $858 billion in excess deposits over loans.



Extending the above to cover the entire US financial system, shows more of the same: according to the Fed,
in the latest week ended March 6, there was a total of $9,283 billion
in consolidated deposits, covering just $7,255 billion in commercial
bank loans, a record $2+ trillion in excess deposits over loans.



How is it possible that there is a record amount of deposits in the
US financial system, while the notional outstanding of total commercial
loans is less than at the time Lehman filed? Simple – the delta has been
filled by the Fed’s excess reserves, which amounts to… drumroll… just
over $2 trillion, which via circuitous ways make its way back to the
bank deposit ledger – this was explained in “A Record $2 Trillion In Deposits Over Loans – The Fed’s Indirect Market Propping Pathway Exposed.”

In other words, by becoming America’s indirect “bad bank”, the Fed
has mitigated the concern of a deposit run, or at least within the US
traditional banking system, however in the process making the US $14
trillion shadow banking system (where it was been soaking up safe
collateral at an epic pace) breathtakingly fragile.

However, shadow banking is a topic for another day. For the time
being, the take home message is that at least superficially, there is a
record $2 trillion in deposits which are not encumbered by loans, and
which incidentally are used by banks such as JPM to fund the operations
of its prop trading desks, such as the CIO, and ramp stocks and risk in
general, higher (as also explained previously) at least until these investments go horribly wrong and we get the usual theater of Senatorial hearings and the like.

So what about Europe? Here things get bad. Very bad. So bad in fact that we covered it all just one short year ago, in “A Few Quick Reminders Why NOTHING Has Been Fixed In Europe (And Why LTRO 3 Is Not Coming).”

Sure enough LTRO 3 didn’t come (for the reasons we explained), and a year after the above post was penned, nothing has still changed in Europe, as Cyprus’ bank depositors just learned to their humiliation and savings losses.

What is the reason for this? Well, as readers can surmise based on what just happened in Europe, it once again has to do with deposits, and specifically the loan-to-deposit ratios
of European banks. Because if the US has an excess of deposits over
loans, Europe is and has always suffered from the inverse: a massive excess of loans (impaired assets) compared to the most critical of bank liabilities – deposits.
This goes back to centuries of capital formation in Europe, which
unlike the US has always relied far more on secured bank loans than on
unsecured corporate debt as can be seen on the chart below.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/deutsche-bank-only-jesus-can-save-the-euro.html




DEUTSCHE BANK: Only Jesus Can Save The Euro







Matthew Boesler
Business Insider
March 17, 2013

Deutsche Bank‘s global head of FX
strategy, Bilal Hafeez, recently gave a speech at the annual Deutsche
Bank Mittelstand (small and medium-sized enterprises) FX conference in
Hamburg, Germany.



The bank’s research department transcribed Hafeez’s speech and sent it out to clients in a note.

The speech focuses on the euro area’s economic woes and the need for
the currency bloc to move forward with further integration in order to
be economically successful.

Hafeez opens the speech with a reflection on parenting and a child’s years as a “terrible teen.”

The gist is that euro member states are behaving like infighting
teens – which is preventing further integration – and they need a role
model that everyone across Europe can respect.

“I can only think of one figure that is respected by most Europeans and has never sinned, Jesus!” said Hafeez.

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t
  
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Read the excerpt from Hafeez’s speech below.
————————————————————-
Europe’s Saviour
Who else has entered the terrible teens? The Euro-Area! It was born in
1999, and so is currently fourteen years old. It has all the hallmarks
of teenage angst. It is ridden with internal conflicts, it is groping
around for structure, and it is suspicious of authority. So who can be a
positive role model for the Euro-Area? Well it cannot be the “fathers”:
Germany or France. It has to be an external figure that all Europeans
respect, and whose motives and character are beyond dispute. That rules
out anyone living as even the most competent person will make missteps
or have something from their past dredged up to undermine them. That
leaves us with historical figures whose lives have been laid bare by
history. I can only think of one figure that is respected by most
Europeans and has never sinned, Jesus!

Who’s to blame, and who is blameless

If everyone in the Euro-area would adopt the principle of not casting
stones unless they were without sin then the constant accusations would
stop. And remember, everyone has breached agreements in one way or
another, even the stronger countries like Germany and France. How so?
Well, all Euro-area countries were supposed to follow the Stability and
Growth Pact (SGP), which amongst other things imposed a limit on of
fiscal deficits of 3% and of government debt to GDP of 60%. Both Germany
and France breached the SGP in the early 2000s and suffered no
penalties. I should add that both Ireland and Spain met the SGP rules
before 2008. So blaming “weaker” countries for not following agreements
rings hollow.
If everyone held back their accusatory stones and instead focused on the
future, then we may have a clearer vision of things to come. The two
pressing issues for the Euro-area are the impact of austerity and the
survival of the Euro-area in its current form.




[color:d929=#333]This article was posted: Sunday, March 17, 2013 at 7:43 am

http://www.blacklistednews.com/REPORT%3A_Germany_Told_Cyprus_They_Could_Tax_Their_Depositors%2C_Or_Leave_The_Eurozone/24783/0/38/38/Y/M.html


REPORT: Germany Told Cyprus They Could Tax Their Depositors, Or Leave The Eurozone
Joe Weisenthal | Mar. 16, 2013, 12:19 PM | 9,182 | 32

The drama out of Cyprus Saturday continues to get more interesting.

The country has been ailing for quite some time, and everybody knew that a bailout was coming.

But the big surprise is that depositors in banks will be subject to an instant one-off tax to raise nearly 6 billion euros.

The background is that because Cyprus has an enormous banking system -— and houses a lot of offshore Russian money — there was not much political appetite to bail it out, even though the amount of cash was minimal.

In fact it seems, Germany was comfortable letting Cyprus go completely.

Faisal Islam — who is the crack economics reporter at U.K. network C4 — tweets that Germany basically gave a quid-pro-quo. Take the deal, or leave the Eurozone.

http://www.blacklistednews.com/IMF%3A_Eurozone_Banks_Are_In_Trouble%2C_Trample_Taxpayers_and_Democracy_To_Bail_Them_Out!/24794/0/38/38/Y/M.html

IMF: Eurozone Banks Are In Trouble, Trample Taxpayers and Democracy To Bail Them Out!
March 17, 2013
Print Version

Source: Wolf Richter, Testosterone Pit.com

Why is it that 17 nations have to fundamentally reorganize themselves and shift sovereignty away from national parliaments to new layers of transnational, beyond-control bureaucracies that can extract untold wealth from taxpayers—just to save the banks?

That’s what the Eurozone has to do, or else banks will topple, and the monetary union will not be sustainable, according to the “first ever European Union-wide assessment of the soundness and stability of the financial sector,” released Friday by the institution that the world couldn’t do without, the IMF.

“Financial stability has not been assured,” the report stated flatly about the fiasco in the Eurozone, despite ceaseless hope-mongering by Eurocrats and politicians, and banks remain “vulnerable to shocks.” The report, which never mentioned banks or countries by name, discussed a number of “risks” that could topple these banks, with some of these “risks” already having transitioned to reality:

“Declining growth.” Banks with “excessive leverage, risky business models, and an adverse feedback loop with sovereigns and the real economy” are particularly vulnerable. Hence, most banks. A number of European countries have been in a deep recession, some of them for years. So “declining growth” is a reality, and these “shocks” are happening now, said the IMF in its more or less subtle ways.

“Further drop in asset prices.” Real estate prices are now dropping in some countries that didn’t see a collapse during the first wave, including France and the Netherlands—where it already took down SNS Reaal, the country’s fourth largest bank [A Taxpayer Revolt Against Bank Bailouts In the Eurozone]. So hurry up and do something, the IMF said.

The report points at other risks for banks. Pressures in wholesale funding markets could dry up liquidity and tighten refinancing conditions. And the market could lose confidence in the sovereign debt that banks hold. For example, an Italian bank, loaded with Italian government debt, would topple if that debt lost value—but of course, the report refuses to name names.

And in “several countries,” the heavy concentration of megabanks “creates too-big-to-fail problems that could amplify the country’s vulnerability.” So Germany, France, and the UK. Alas, in Europe too-big-to-fail doesn’t necessarily mean big. In tiny Cyprus, fifth country to get a bailout, the banks, though minuscule by megabank standards, are getting bailed out anyway. It’s psychological. A fear. If even a small bank were allowed to go bankrupt, the confidence in all banks across the Eurozone would collapse. That’s how fragile Eurocrats and politicians fear their banks have become—despite their reassurances to the contrary.

And so “policymakers and banks need to intensify their efforts across a wide range of areas” to save these banks, the IMF exhorts these Eurocrats and politicians.

Big priorities: “bank balance sheet repair”; banks should build larger capital buffers to be able to absorb shocks. And “credibility” repair of these balance sheets. In an admission that bank balance sheets still aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on, the IMF calls for stiffening the disclosure requirements, “especially of impaired assets” that are decomposing in hidden-from view basements.

The new Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), the EU-wide banking regulator under the ECB, to be operational by early 2014, would have to have real teeth, along with expertise, the IMF pointed out. It should regulate all banks in the Eurozone “to sustain the currency union” and in the entire EU to sustain “the single market for financial services.” In other words, without the SSM, the currency union won’t make it.

But the IMF’s killer app is the Banking Union, a “single framework for crisis management, deposit insurance, supervision, and resolution, with a common backstop for the banking system.” Under this system, taxpayers in all Eurozone countries would automatically be responsible for bailing out banks, their investors, bondholders, counterparties, and account holders in any Eurozone country.

For the most hopeless cases, the Single Resolution Mechanism would step in to dissolve banks “without disrupting financial stability”—hence bail out investors, disrupting financial stability being a term that’s commonly used to justify anything. The medium would be the transnational taxpayer-funded ESM bailout fund; it would bail out banks directly, rather than bail out countries after they bail out their own banks—which is the rule today.

In the process, countries would surrender much of their authority over banks—and how or even whether to bail them out—to this new instrument. Decision makers would be Eurocrats, far removed from any popular vote. Victims would be the people who’d end up paying for it. Investors and speculators would profit. Other beneficiaries would be politicians who’d no longer have to bamboozle voters into bailing out banks because it would be done by a distant power.

The dictum that there is never an alternative to bailouts would be cemented into the system. Democracy, which always gets trampled during bailouts, would be essentially abolished when it comes to transferring money from citizens to bank investors. And that’s of course the ultimate goal of the banking industry.

The stark reality facing millions of Spaniards, Italians, Greeks, and Portuguese is hidden—buried deep under a mountain of economic data, massaged to suit the purposes of the central planners-in-chief. But this is the story of a dying breed: self-made entrepreneurs and small business owners here in Spain, by Don Quijones. Read.... The Reality Of Doing Business In Spain: A Personal Account.

VIDEO AT LINK

http://www.blacklistednews.com/Bulldozer_Parks_Outside_A_Cyprus_Bank_-_Full_Video/24781/0/38/38/Y/M.html

Bulldozer Parks Outside A Cyprus Bank - Full Video
March 16, 2013
Print Version

Source: Zero Hedge

The logical question comes next: why is there a massive bulldozer parked outside a (just "bailed out") Cypriot bank? Well, if up to 9.9% of your money was suddenly and without warning stolen by your bank (pardon, forcefully "reinvested" in the equity of the same bank) and the rest was completely inaccessible, you too would probably park your bulldozer in front of said bank.