59 Replies to “What Could Possibly Go Wrong?”

  2. Well that is part of the bargain any depositor makes either in a bank or insureco or in buying bonds…

  4. This will boomeraqng in so many ways! The bank run is obvious, as depositors will assume (probably rightly) that this isn’t a one-time action and pull their funds out to protect against a repeat. It punishes those who have saved instead of spending; if your nest egg is going to be taxed out from under you, why not spend, spend, spend now and let the government hand out money to you later? And it discourages saving, especially in banks – which is the source for most load money. If people turn to other forms of monetary investment (such as stocks) and take it out of banks, there’s no money left for loans, which will do wonders for the economy.
    All in all, this is as stupid a way as I could ever imagine to deal with a deficit.
    (I’d be interested to know: in the USA, it’s common for banks to have “starter” savings accounts for children, to help them get used to the idea of saving and dealing with a bank. If the same thing exists in Cyprus, will the government be taking 6.75% of the money that little Anna and Michalis have saved from their lemonade stand?)

  5. But, But, But, what happened to all that FREE money? Why can’t the Gubmnt just print more? They need to elect the NDP; then we would see lots of money again. And the teachers would get their raise.

  6. No better sign that the I.M.F. is broke. Just take a look at who the top five contributors are: U.S.A., Japan, Germany, France, and the U.K.
    Now take a closer look at the state of the 2nd largest contributor to the I.M.F., which is Japan (go to 8:40 on the video):
    http://media.chicagobooth.edu/mediasite/Viewer/?peid=f15d95d054e8442ab0cc1c60321383101d
    Wouldn’t want to be hanging on to real estate in Vancouver when one of these black swans gets sucked into the air intake…

  7. So, if you have 1000 euros in the bank one day then 67.5 euros less the next day. If you just deposited your meagre (15th of the month) paycheque and and now have to pay all the bills, this won’t matter, right, like that’s not even a week’s groceries? Not only that, it’s sooo progressive.
    When statists says someone else is going to pay for government, they mean you are that someone else. Every time – this case is yet another example. There simply aren’t enough rich people to pillage, but statists are happy to make you poorer so they can stick it to the rich; oh, and a great job for them too.
    We’re witnessing what the rest of Europe, the US, Japan and maybe China can expect going forward medium to long term. The GWB/BO debt repayment has not yet truly begun to drain the treasury yet and higher rates going forward when they’re forced to refinance portend great danger. Cypress is hardly an isolated example but a harbinger of how an entitlement economy loses financial energy and plummets.
    Canada is well positioned but hardly immune from these negative economic pressures, but the current lethargic economic activity will be a more prominent feature going forward with small advances but mostly long periods of neutral activity. The Dow “record high” is also misleading. What the high actually means that if you got the actual performance of this index five and half years ago, you’re just breaking even now. That’s with a 9% bump this year so far.
    Canada’s relatively good performance could easily be a sabotaged by a Trudeau and/or Mulcair government. Either of these Keystone cop outs could plunge the country into the suicidal entitlement/borrowing approach seen elsewhere. That would be dangerous to the economic health of this country, and thus our prosperity.

  8. Will this start bank runs in other EU countries on Monday?
    “Russian oligarchs” have a lot of savings deposits in Cypriot banks. I wonder if they will express their displeasure directly to the EU and IMF bureaucrats?
    I am going to start moving my savings out of my 0.1% interest account to something safer, like mattress futures.

  9. Joey,
    But its a “balanced approach”
    Seiously, this needs to be documented and highlighted so people undestand what the destination of that particular road looks like.
    The left will not report this. They will hide it, excuse it, ignore it.
    This has happened before and will happen again to those in similar circumstances.

  10. Hummmmmm….would appear that the ones cashing in their IRAs/401ks are the smart ones. You can bet your next year pay checks the Chimp in Chief is right now with his handlers to figure out how to do this in the USSA. I’m with rd,only Grand Caymen futures.

  11. But don’t worry, your RRSP is safe. They’d never take it and distribute it to cover unfunded union pensions.

  12. It wasn’t all that many years ago when the NDP was ruminating about a “one time” tax of 10% on the RRSP savings of Canadians. Maybe physical gold and silver are the only way to keep the fascists from grabbing your dough.

  13. Physical Gold,Silver& portable assets looks better each day.
    Especially if the paper trail to yourself is broken.
    What they do not know of, they can not steal.
    Remember, Do not steal, your government hates competition.

  14. Once again this is why this needs to be widely publicized to show it is possible. That knoweldge helps keep govenments form going there.
    If people believe it is obscure or impossible they wont worry about the circumstances that make it inevitable.
    The left will ignore, minimize and deny this action. It needs to be spoken about, early and often.

  15. If you close your eyes and visualize, you can see where the economic Titanic has just hit the iceberg while the crew is assuring the passengers that all is well. It’s only in third class where they are getting wet feet, just stay calm. Captain IMF knows what he’s doing. Wont affect the rest of the ship. Enjoy your cruise.

  17. Ya….that’s why a lotta older folk don’t trust banks…they ‘bin thar…….

  18. Quite right on that. When my great grandmother died, and we were cleaning up her house to put on sale. We found pushing $40k stashed all throughout the house, she lived through the great depression and didn’t trust banks a single bit.

  19. but, but,but , they didn’t “hurt” gov’t employee pensions, those who atleast partly to blaim for the mess get a free pass, time to do as gordinkneehill proposes, but not just with politicians, but also more than a few beaurocraps. These employees of the people need to be taught who they boss is, and quit trying to be dictators!!!!!!!

  20. I seem to remember reading another government doing that, except they took all of it.

  21. Only accounts over 100,000 euros are being levied, but it doesn’t matter. Once you’ve breached the barrier of pillaging bank accounts, regardless of the amount, the lower limit becomes arbitrary and subject to change at any time.
    What’s interesting here is that for all of the allegations about money-laundering, the Cypriot banking sector was the one part of its economy that was reasonably healthy. The banks were Cyprus’s one industry that could actually carry a large part of its economy. So even if this “works”, all this does is guarantee that Cyprus will end up in bigger financial difficulty than it is now.
    Run on the banks? Starting on Monday, all the big depositors are going to be draining their cash, after the EU/IMF looting, virtually guaranteeing that the banks will collapse unless provided with bailout financing.
    Final point to note is that the EU/IMF wouldn’t dare to treat a charter EU member this way. France for example would simply put a tank battalion in front of the national bank and say, “You want in? Prepare to eat high explosive.”

  22. “Only accounts over 100000 are being levied” No these accounts are paying 9.9% all others are paying 6.5%. Share the pain, except for the beaurocrats with their perks of the job. Necktie parties complete with meathooks are should be the order of the day but the sheeple are easily herded these days.

  23. Nations with their own currency can just print the money (through “quantitative easing”) instead of stealing from bank depositors. Cyprus adopted the euro, so it can’t do this.

  26. Clever exercise in financial engineering by the US, methinks.
    Come Monday Euro will drop, gold will jump a bit, but not nearly as much as the USD – AKA flight to quality.
    MSM news coverage will likely be minimal – don’t want to frighten the sheeple, after all.

  27. WOW!
    I just can’t imagine this will end well, unless the IMF changes its mind before Tuesday.
    If this grab at wealth goes without serious repercussions, it will be tried again and again until the deterrent is too strong. There must be numerous leaders of near bankrupt nations, including some provincial premiers, who must be praying there are few consequences to this action.
    I’ll leave it to readers to dream up what consequences would deter this sort of action.
    Government for the people?

  28. It’s 7:00pm eastern time on Saturday March 16th … so far I have been unable to find much TV news of this, it’s only on blogs and websites that could bedescribed as libertarian / consrvative.
    Expect this to mushroom into a much larger “bank run” on Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Irish and Greek banks starting on Monday … the entire EU is at risk of imploding but the ‘PIIGS’ (countries listed above) are in the worst shape.
    Most journalists ‘reporting’ on this as of Monday will underplay it as some sort of ‘irrational’ behaviour. We are cursed by living in “interesting times”. As Capt. Capitalism (Aaron Clary) would say, ‘enjoy the decline’.

  29. In Canada during the Great Depression, they put limits on how much could be withdrawn per day. Also in the USA, they are starting to demand that all precious metal transactions be recorded. Collapse is getting closer. The Chimp in Chief did not buy 1.6B rounds of dum dum ammo for nothing or 2700 armoured military style vehicles for civilian use within the USA for nothing. When you get hungry you will submit.

  30. The alleged target of this confiscation was “dirty” money deposited in Cypriot bank accounts by Russian (and other) oligarchs.
    An oligarch likely won’t be letting his money rest in a savings account – it’ll be parked there only for a matter of hours before being transferred out and put to work. Impact here will be minimal – these guys didn’t become wealthy without having an intelligence network. The real victims are the proles who got blind-sided by this draconian measure.
    Typically, the PTB used a hammer while a thumbtack will do.

  31. Depending on where your rrsps are there is no concern of seizure. At least not by the managing bank or insureco or IMF – the govt on the other hand…

  32. Thanks Anon. Missed that bit about the small accounts. So they really are raping and pillaging from aged retirees.

  35. A lot of very nervous people will be watching to see how citizens in Cyprus react. If the reaction does not lead to blood in the streets you can rest assured the IMF will be grabbing bank accounts all over Europe. The PIIGS will be waiting with bated breath. I would guess that this will start a run on the banks as anyone with substantial holdings can see themselves as being next. The outcome in Cyprus should be very entertaining.

  36. Buy gold and silvr bullion, people. And not the certificates or shares, I’m talking about the actual metal. I began buying when it when gold was just over $500 per ounce….not as an investment, the price fluctuations don’t concern me. My interest was to have actual tangible hard assets in case of economic downturns, which, given the state of the US economy, appear to be imminent.
    I am not suggesting putting all savings into precious metals….but put some funds into it as purely a hedge against economic reverses.

  37. Now they have a law that those who withdrew all their money from the banks (except for the levy) have to put it back.
    Yeah. Good luck with that. I’m sure the Russian billionaires will comply.

  38. Time to start slowly emptying my bank account and cashing in RRSP’s. Unfortunately the only way for me to avoid taking a big tax hit on the RRSP’s is to take a long holiday so I’ll have no income. Guess I could spend the time burying a good chunk of my guns and ammo and preparing Loki’s bunker for when TSHTF. Maybe there’s people out there who specialize in teaching doctors how to take holidays given my 100 hour work weeks.
    I like gold and it has its uses like attracting women who like gold, but aside from maybe $20 K in gold which I’d physically hold, I wouldn’t get overly excited about it. Land, OTOH, is going to be valuable. My favorite metals in the upcoming situation are lead and copper. I suspect that ammunition would be in much higher demand than gold in a true SHTF scenario. Stocking up on gasoline, car parts, food, generators and practical barter items is a lot more sensible policy than converting ones savings to gold. Also, have replacement electronics that are stored in a Faraday cage in case the Norks or Iranians decide to create a mega-EMP over N. America. If you live in a place where you can use wood heat, installing a wood stove would be a really good idea. It wouldn’t surprise me if the BC government which is currently broke would suddenly decide that the “environmental” situation is far worse than it thought and dramatically escalates “carbon taxes” AKA statist kleptocracy.
    One of the most useless things for someone to own now would be a rectangular hole in the sky in a place like Vancouver or Toronto. In Vancouver one might get nice views, but one can’t grow enough food to survive using the balcony (assuming one’s condo has a balcony) and there’s no way that one can store a years worth of food in one of Vancouver’s tiny highly overpriced condo’s. If I see a lot of new ex-Vancouverites at the clinic who’ve suddenly decided that now is a really good time to leave that place, I’ll know that the rush to the country is starting and that will make me more likely to take my RRSP emptying vacation.

  39. The answer is to spend it then, not withdraw it.
    There will be a run on grocery stores and liquor/tobacco outlets.
    Chocolate, over-the-counter medicinals, spices…spend it on expensive stuff that keeps well and hoard that stuff.

  40. I cashed in some RRSP’s to buy the wife a new(er) jeep GC and one does not appreciate a true sh1t kicking until one does that. Knock one third off money withdrawn right off the bat and then see the remains as additional income the following year. What a scam unless all you have upon retirement is CPP and OAP. Truth in advertisement should simply state ” get screwed now or get screwed later”. I agree with your solution. Invest in Guns, ammo and my favorite….large bags of good quality dog food. Already have the rural isolation and if things ever get bad enough…..a ton of dog food , which as you probably know must be fit for human consumption. Always good for last resort if nothing else pans out. I wont eat my dogs and my dogs wont have to eat me. Can’t eat gold. Cities will be screwed within a week. Hope I never need the dog food but it’s cheap insurance.

  41. Since I first saw this story this morning, I’ve been waiting for it to be guns-blazing, gigantic-font headline news worldwide. It’s certainly worthy.
    On CBC, it’s not there at all. (No shock there.) On the other sites (G&M, Star, CTV) it’s either buried off the front page or hidden in small font.
    This is a scary development. I put it on Facebook and it got a collective “meh” on there. WTH is going on?

  42. By the way, just spitballing here, and maybe it’s been mentioned before, but … why do I smell a Soros?

  43. I am with Johann. Whilst never under-estimating the stupidy of politicians and the IMF it must be clear that this is a ballsy move. To steal, in the dark of night, from the citizenry you are supposed to serve is (in humphry’s wording) a ‘courageous’ decision, something which politicians do not knowingly do without 100% guarantee to their own personal ego&wealth.
    There is motive here and it is not just to meet the terms for the bailout.
    BTW- this is starting to get some traction on the british papers and radio now, nothing earlier this morning but now that noon is rolling round people are starting to talk.
    The european press though is still rather quiet, they’ve apparently got their usual orders that all is well.

  44. peterj, thanks for the dog food tip. While it may not seem very appetizing now, 48 hours without food and it will probably be delicious. I’ve eaten insects, earthworms, squirrels and grubs in the past and found that the hungrier I get, the more omnivorous I become. Will pick up a few bags on my next shopping trip.
    Should stock up on cat food as well as my cat does well on the local mice during the summer but she can’t hunt in the winter.

  45. Hi Loki, I recommend Walmarts House Brand dog food. Old Roy…Just kidding. If you intend to get into the country best do it before garden season, so you can plant a garden. That is what saved the Russian people in the late 90’s. They sent the women to the Dacha’s to grow food all summer, that saved them. Even without money as long as you have food and heat you will survive. Latest follow up article at Zero Hedge. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-16/everyone-shocked-what-just-happened-and-why-just-beginning?page=8

  46. BTW – there is no way that the gov’t or the IMF would knowingly go after such a large amount of russian mob money in such an overt way. As I said, they are stupid but this would take it to a new level.
    The mob either moved their money out as they were warned (and by some accounts they were) or they’ve been granted concessions. I think the latter is more likely hence the level of involvement of the russian gov’t as well, or both as the mob isn’t a very trusting sort.
    Now, what could a russian mafia boss like in the way of concessions….hmmm, some sort of immunity perhaps!!!

  47. Heard on the radio (880,Edmonton) about 3:30 AM that the IMF/EU have currently shelved the theft and are reviewing it. Seems the peons got a tad upset. Can’t find dick all in any MSM though.

  48. @Loki – Land ownership might seem an attractive option for preservation of wealth, but unless you hold allodial title all you have is feudal tenure, subject to the whims of government avarice. (Onerous taxes, levies and so forth.) Either way any level of government can rob you by claiming the right of emminent domain.
    Land cannot be moved or hidden, but physical precious metals can be.

  49. I think I’m going to invest in king-size mattresses. They’re going to become a pretty hot commodity.
    How any socialist can object to these measures is beyond me. After all, isn’t it one of the basic tenets of socialism that it’s not really your money in the first place; it’s the government’s? However, in order to garner votes, the same lunkheaded statists who brought on the problem in the first place will turn overnight into faux champions of private property.
    And some wonder why we need property rights enshrined in the constitution (for all the good that will do in the face of “activist” judges).

  50. The materials used to make pet food(dog food) are materials which have been rejected by inspectors or even source(eg. China’s low grade wheat mixed with melamine) from the human food supply as *unfit for people to consume.
    *will cause disease

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