The EU Took €100 Million from the Greek Orthodox Church

[erudne]

Cyprus Update: If anyone is under the delusion that the seizure of individual and business accounts from the banks of collapsed nation is where the evil and corruption will stop, here’s a shock for the readers courtesy of the Cyprus Mail:

Church says it will lose €100m

This so-called “bail-in” designed only to protect the hedge funds of the European and British money center banks scalped the one entity which could help the poor during the nations transition from quasi-capitalism to European serf state. From the article in today’s paper:
The Church stands to lose more than 100 million euros in the bailout deal reached with international creditors early Monday, its leader Archbishop Chrysostomos said.

“The capital owned by the Church, which was over 100 million euros, has been lost,” the archbishop told reporters.

“There will be many difficulties, some will lose their jobs, the hungry will be multiplied and the Church has to take care of people,” he added.


Granted, I’m sure they won’t suffer at the top of the church as in the old Vatican tradition, the Greek Orthodox Church has been known to enjoy ornate lifestyles and investments which per the article range from breweries (yes, that’s correct) to hotels and resorts. The bigger picture is that the European Union using the power of the ECB and IMF combined has now found a formula not just to create vassal states, but to seize the assets of the Church, something the atheistic Marxists which created the Eurozone have fantasized about for over a decade. This action should make the Vatican extremely nervous about their massive Italian and Spanish property holdings in those nations.


When this program is translated into an American version, look for only those “Federally approved” institutions to be exempt from property and capital seizure. Three is no better formula to force a religious institution to pay taxes and force compliance with the political elite’s prevailing point of view to extinguish the concept of freedom of expression.
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[Silver Fox]

Wow. Imagine the chubby ol' BHO, Bidden and the a$$-hat posse would get if they could 'tax' the Mormon church. I am sure they'd love to tax all churches, but the Mormon church is special to them.

SF-

 

[Blue Devil PA]

I can imagine that the average Joe is now thinking: "Screw this, I am taking what remains out of my bank account and NEVER give those SOBs another chance to screw me." Now multiply that times the number of account holders in Cyprus.

Banking in Cyprus just violated the key principle of trust and without that no one will ever give the banks their money again.

Scarier is what people in Italy, Greece (oh, wait the smart people already are using the "mattress bank"), Spain are thinking and doing. If public confidence begins to equal reality, the world is in trouble.

 

[erudne]

Savings accounts in Spain, Italy and other European countries will be raided if needed to preserve Europe's single currency by propping up failing banks, a senior eurozone official has announced.



<broken link removed>
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__http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/27/wo...bal-home&_r=2&

NICOSIA, Cyprus &#8212; When European finance chiefs explained their harsh terms for rescuing Cyprus this week, many blamed the tiny Mediterranean nation's wayward banking practices for bringing ruin on itself.

But the path that led to Cyprus's current crisis &#8212; big banks bereft of money, a government in disarray and citizens filled with angry despair &#8212; leads back, at least in part, to a fateful decision made 17 months ago by the same guardians of financial discipline that now demand that Cyprus shape up.

That decision, like the onerous bailout package for Cyprus announced early Monday, was sealed in Brussels in secretive emergency sessions in the dead of night in late October 2011. That was when the European Union, then struggling to contain a debt crisis in Greece, effectively planted a time bomb that would blow a big hole in Cyprus's banking system &#8212; and set off a chain reaction of unintended and ever escalating ugly consequences.

"It was 3 o'clock in the morning," recalled Kikis Kazamias, Cyprus's finance minister at the time. "I was not happy. Nobody was happy, but what could we do?"

He was in Brussels as European leaders and the International Monetary Fund engineered a 50 percent write-down of Greek government bonds. This meant that those holding the bonds &#8212; notably the then-cash-rich banks of the Greek-speaking Republic of Cyprus &#8212; would lose at least half the money they thought they had. Eventual losses came close to 75 percent of the bonds' face value.

The action had an anodyne name &#8212; private-sector involvement, or P.S.I. &#8212; and, it seemed at the time, a worthy goal: forcing private investors to share some of the burden of shoring up Greece's crumbling finances. "We Europeans showed tonight that we reached the right conclusions," Chancellor Angela Merkelof Germany announced at the time.

For Cypriot banks, particularly Laiki Bank, at the center of the current storm, however, these conclusions foretold a disaster: Altogether, they lost more than four billion euros, a huge amount in a country with a gross domestic product of just 18 billion euros. Laiki, also known as Cyprus Popular Bank, alone took a hit of 2.3 billion euros, according to its 2011 annual report.

What happened between the overnight session in 2011 and the one that ended early Monday morning is a study of how decisions made in closed conference rooms in Brussels &#8212; often in the middle of the night and invariably couched in impenetrable jargon &#8212; help explain why the so-called European project keeps getting blindsided by a cascade of crises.

"I cannot remember that European policy makers have seen anything coming throughout the euro crisis," said Paul de Grauwe, a professor at the London School of Economics and a former adviser at the European Commission. "The general rule is that they do not see problems coming."
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: cash, security control for banks reopening
People use ATMs outside a closed branch of the Bank of Cyprus in capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Wednesday, March 27, 2013. Cypriot authorities are preparing limits on how much money depositors can take out of their accounts a day before banks are set to reopen. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
By MENELAOS HADJICOSTIS
Associated Press / March 27, 2013
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NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) &#8212; Cyprus has imposed limits on money transfers and hired extra security guards as it prepares for the planned reopening Thursday of its banks, which have been closed for almost two weeks to avoid a run during the country's financial drama.

A banking official said Wednesday that new controls will include restrictions on large-scale transfers from the country's two largest and most troubled lenders, Bank of Cyprus and Laiki, when they reopen Thursday. Both are being restructured and big depositors face losses of as much as 40 percent.

Authorities are looking to increase the daily withdrawal limit from 100 euros to 300 euros (from $130 to $386), while payroll payments will be allowed in order to help businesses, which have taken a huge hit as people cut down on their spending amid the uncertainty swirling about the banks.

The restrictions will be kept for at least a week until the situation stabilizes, said the official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because the measures have yet to be officially announced.

Meanwhile, private security firm G4S will dispatch 180 of its staff to all bank branches across the island to keep a lid on any possible trouble, said John Argyrou, managing director of the firm's Cypriot arm.

&#8216;&#8216;Our presence there will be for the comfort of both bank staff and clients, but police will also be present,'' he said.

Argyrou said he doesn't foresee any serious trouble unfolding once banks open their doors because people had time to &#8216;&#8216;digest'' what has transpired.

&#8216;&#8216;There may be some isolated incidents, but it's in our culture to be civil and patient, so I don't expect anything serious.''

Another 120 staff from G4S would be assigned money transportation duties.

Banks were closed on March 16 as politicians scrambled to come up with a plan to raise 5.8 billion euros ($7.5 billion) that would qualify the country for 10 billion euros ($12.9 billion) in bailout loans from fellow eurozone partners and the International Monetary Fund.

Under the deal clinched in Brussels early Monday, Cyprus agreed to slash its oversized banking sector and inflict hefty losses on large Laiki and Bank of Cyprus depositors.

Laiki is to be restructured, with its healthy assets going into a &#8216;&#8216;good bank'' and its nonperforming loans and toxic assets going into a &#8216;&#8216;bad bank,'' officials have said. The healthy side will be absorbed into the Bank of Cyprus.

The board of directors of both banks has been fired and administrators appointed to handle the restructuring and absorption, the banking official said.

Bank of Cyprus CEO Yiannis Kypris issued a statement saying the Central Bank governor had asked him verbally Wednesday to resign.

&#8216;&#8216;These are very difficult times for everyone. The Bank of Cyprus was and must remain the basic support of the economy and our society in the effort to deal with the crisis our country is going through,'' Kypris said. &#8216;&#8216;I hope that the handling of this transition phase will respect the workers, shareholders and customers of the Bank of Cyprus.''

Cypriot officials said the deal would mean the country would shift its focus away from being an international center of financial services. That is expected to cost jobs, adding to the unemployment rate which now stands at around 14 percent.

Business leaders and cabinet ministers were meeting with President Nicos Anastasiades on Wednesday to find ways to get the economy going again.

To give consumers a break, electricity prices will drop 5.75 percent next month. Over the next couple of weeks, authorities will look into how they can reduce them by another 3 percent, said Commerce Minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis.

Interior Minister Socrates Hasikos said his ministry is looking to cut red tape in order to attract foreign investment. He said Chinese investors have shown increasing interest in property sales, adding that a single real estate office has sold some 400 residences to Chinese buyers.

&#8216;&#8216;There has always been interest from foreign investors,'' said Hasikos. &#8216;&#8216;The question is how we as the government, as Cyprus, can convince all these investors ...that the environment is secure, that whatever happened has now passed and that they can continue securely investing in Cyprus.''

 

[knuckle Head]

I wander how many people in cyprus ever thought this would happen, I knew they were capable of this, but have to admit it caught me by surprise.

I wander our Gooberment is conceiving behind closed with our creditors.

 

[erudne]

Margaret Thatcher Was Frighteningly Accurate When She Made This Economic Prediction
Apr. 9, 2013 10:39am Becket Adams

13126021&nbsp;&nbsp;27Lady Margaret Thatcher was well-known throughout the free world for her fierce conservatism and her opposition to the "Evil Empire," two noble qualities that separated her from the rest of her U.K. colleagues.

But did you know that she also had some frighteningly accurate economic predictions?

In her two autobiographies, "The Downing Street Years" and "The Path To Power," she wrote about how she planned to argue against the EMU (Economic and Monetary Union), the Telegraph's Peter Oborne notes.

In her anti-EMU arguments, as Business Insider's Joe Weisenthal and Rob Wile point out, Thatcher "outlined the problems with the euro perfectly, that Germany would chafe at the inevitable need for greater inflation, and that the poorer countries would inevitably be uncompetitive and need bailouts that would not easily be forthcoming."

In short, Thatcher predicted the EU as it exists at this moment.

Here's the paragraph from "The Path To Power" where she discusses inflation and competitiveness:
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/201...-accurate-when-she-made-this-econ-prediction/

Margaret Thatcher, The Path To Power.
And here's the paragraph from "Downing Street Years" where she repeats the prediction:


The Downing Street Years.
Frighteningly accurate, no

 

[mrblond]

makes me glad I invested in ammunition rather then the banks.

 

[Stomper]

makes me glad I invested in ammunition rather then the banks.

^^^THIS!!^^^

 

[Spray-n-pray]

So diversifying your portfolio simply means buying ammunition in multiple calibers?

 

[knuckle Head]

So diversifying your portfolio simply means buying ammunition in multiple calibers?

Good point, and to make sure you are FAIR about diversification one must be sure to buy a FAIR amount of beans, rices, fuel.

Got to make sure there is FAIR SHARE ofeach food group, ammo etc..

 

[MountainBear]

So diversifying your portfolio simply means buying ammunition in multiple calibers?

I take it to mean a little bit of silver, a little bit of lead and brass, some stainless steel, and some walnut and carbon steel. Very diverse...

 

[knuckle Head]

I take it to mean a little bit of silver, a little bit of lead and brass, some stainless steel, and some walnut and carbon steel. Very diverse...

Just make sure you use "O" & "B" s thought process and practice the FAIRNESS doctrine,

 

[knuckle Head]

I can imagine that the average Joe is now thinking: "Screw this, I am taking what remains out of my bank account and NEVER give those SOBs another chance to screw me." Now multiply that times the number of account holders in Cyprus.

Banking in Cyprus just violated the key principle of trust and without that no one will ever give the banks their money again.

Scarier is what people in Italy, Greece (oh, wait the smart people already are using the "mattress bank"), Spain are thinking and doing. If public confidence begins to equal reality, the world is in trouble.

Something a lot of people here do not know and I know it because when the EU was being talked about I had to do a lot business travel in Belgium and Germany and also had family members in the military stationed in Germany.

Every individual person I talked too who had any sense and we are talking about people I ran into the pub, small business owners, business people on flights etc,etc none of them wanted the open borders and none of the them wanted the EURO, they kep saying those morons (my translation, cannot use on here the words they actually used) are going to destroy, with open borders we will over run with drugs, gangs, illegals etc.etc. With the one currency system we will wind up bailing out lazy loafers.

Just what they were right.

Now, lookat where we are headed. I know lots and lots of people who doing withdrawls here in the U.S. and quietly converting it into metal, liquid spirits, land, food, guns ammo, fuel, generators, solar. And many fed employee's praying for the furloughs because if they are furloughed for less 30 days (all at once or spread out) they can do a withdrawal with less penalties, they are also petitionin congressional members and sentate members to make it so they can doa an unlimited withdrawal at zero penalties, through a hardship program.

The great run on the banks here has already begun as well, I ask peolpe do you really trust "O" & "B", do you really trust the fed res. who is generating digital money and keeping walstreet at an inflated rate, especially when the ultra rich billionares have withdrwan their cash from the US stock market, they do no do these things without good reason.

Billionaires Dumping Stocks, Economist Knows Why

 

[MountainBear]

Just make sure you use "O" & "B" s thought process and practice the FAIRNESS doctrine,

No clue what that means, so I'll continue as is...