"Politicians in Cyprus have agreed a new one-off levy on savers in order to secure a European bailout.
The measures include a 20% tax on savers with deposits over 100,000 euros at the country's largest bank, the Bank of Cyprus.
A 4% tax on deposits over 100,000 euros would be levied at other banks."
lol, if you have over 100k saved with the biggest "most trustworthy" bank in Cyprus then you've just been robbed.
Keep in mind that had the banks been allowed to fail in a sudden "free market" moment, 100% of funds above that amount were uninsured and would be gone.
That is very much true, the problem is of course that all their clients were under the impression that their bank would get a bailout, no matter what. It's a first though that this bailout is financed by the clients of the bank itself.
The whole problem with the financial crisis of the last five years is that practically every bank or nation is somehow 'too big to fail'. Banks, like every other private company, should be allowed to go bankrupt. It would be tough and painful in the short-term, but right now we are facing a situation were some nation or some central bank
will someday simply be unable to bailout a bank and the whole system comes crashing down.
I truly believe Bitcoin would solve this problem the coming century. Like the 19th century, were capital was linked to gold, there was a limit to the amount of money a bank or a nation could create. Bank runs were far more common then, but systemic crises were more scarce. With Bitcoin, the power governments and banks have to inflate their balance with debt will be drastically reduced. In the end, we will all benefit.
They can and will ALWAYS be able to bail out the banks, they can just print enough money into existence to bail them out....
where the hole thing falls apart is when they do this so much that people start to lose faith in the $, find an alternative and stop using dollars... ( easier said then done )
The US has loaned out ALOT of its money to other counties, and is now continually inflating their money supply, if china wants to sell all their USD the USD will be totally worthless over night.... China is holding Trillions of $ and they do not want to see them go to 0 value so they will hold their dollars, forever. Every country owes money to each other and will hold these BS IOUs , forever. What is happening now, is everyone is realizing they should be doing like US and printing money like mad fools. and that is what the "currency wars" are all about.
We the little people at the bottom will suffer big time if we do not protect our self's...
Buy the biggest house you can "afford", with a loan you will never be able to pay back.
buy gold, silver, bitcoin!
buy STUFF!
after all he who dies with the most toys wins!
This BS mentality is going away i think
until then...
when in Rome do as the Romans do