The Cyprus Bailout crisis

[rajagainstthemachine]

Cyprus's parliament votes on Monday on a plan to seize money from bank deposits as part of an EU bailout, a move that has sent a shiver across the bloc, caused the euro to tumble and stock markets to dive.

I have a friend in cyprus who's telling me that all he can do at this point is withdrawn a pittance from ATM's for grocery shopping and the like and all his savings accounts are frozen out.
He can withdraw upto 800 euro a day and that is it.

[rajagainstthemachine]

in a nutshell this is what is happening

The Cypriot parliament is going to vote about this levy law today
If the law passes, they will manage to get the 6 billion the EU wants Cyprus to get so they give 10 billion more
If the law doesn't pass, the Cyprus economy crashes.

The two major banks go bankrupt. The government's central bank won't be able to give people back their savings up to 100K because it's also bust.
And basically Cyprus will exit the Euro zone and most middle tier businesses will go bust and external investors will leave Cyprus.

All this is making the Euro sink and it's sinking in the Asian Stock market.

[zzm9980]

And if it passes, all of the money that's not seized will be out of Cyprus by Noon and the banks will collapse anyway.

[JR8]

It was the height of political vanity and folly imagining that the Germans and Greeks could exist within the same currency.

Now the Germans and 'northern bloc' are paying the price.

Thank heavens the UK never joined!

[rajagainstthemachine]

Well, it looks like the Germans will be calling the shots in Cyprus and Greece for a while. Next up it will be Spain and Portugal if they are aren't careful.

I wonder what would happen if something like this were to happen to Singapore.

[Mi Amigo]

Well, looking at this:

City on alert as Autonomy probe is launched by Serious Fraud Office

Quote: "HP bought FTSE 100 company Autonomy for $10.3 billion (£6.9 billion) in 2011, but wrote off £8 billion [sic] last autumn."

... I reckon HP could have got a better deal if they'd bought Cyprus instead.

[JR8]

Well, it looks like the Germans will be calling the shots in Cyprus and Greece for a while. Next up it will be Spain and Portugal if they are aren't careful.

I wonder what would happen if something like this were to happen to Singapore.

I don't think SG would be fool enough to cede power to some undemocratic puppeteer.

The euro/EU was a bloodless coup (3rd time lucky for Germany, in getting to rule Europe).

As they say 'The EU is a French Jockey (political strategy), riding a German donkey (their wealth and industriousness)'.

Inviting the Club-Med countries to join, was political posturing. In this di*k-measuring contest, the priority was having a political block, with a population larger than the 'Evil, freewheeling, reckless, capitalist right-wing' USA. Let's create a socialist utopia, a geo-political counter-weight...

They'd have probably invited Albania to join, if tipping the balance versus the US hinged upon it.

Well now the music has stopped in this game of 'pass-the-debt-parcel'. And it falls on German citizens more so than anyone else. They really got sold a puppy by their politicians.

[Barnsley]

Read in an online report that the Russians would be moving their money out to Dubai or Singapore, somewhere stable but where the banks dont ask where the money is coming from apparently!!!

I thought Singapore had gone less opaque on taking deposits following pressure from USA?

[zzm9980]

I thought Singapore had gone less opaque on taking deposits following pressure from USA?

No, some just refuse to do business with Americans, and the others won't let an American perform any kind of investments or have any accounts more complicated than a 0.05% interest savings acct.

Still looking for recommendations for investments here

[JR8]

Read in an online report that the Russians would be moving their money out to Dubai or Singapore, somewhere stable but where the banks dont ask where the money is coming from apparently!!!

I thought Singapore had gone less opaque on taking deposits following pressure from USA?

If that is so it is surprising. Because there are a heck of a lot of foreign banks, and they function by the rules from their home countries. So a Wall Street bank will have a 'Know your customer' procedure and will be the same at every branch worldwide. If you cannot profile a potential client, they don't get to open an account.

As you might expect you have a permanent wrestling match, with brokers (on commission) willing to sign anyone up - vs - management trying to filter them.

Where I worked if we couldn't profile a potential client, and the 'prospect' was fat enough, we would occasionally engage the services of an para-intelligence agency http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandline to do the background research.

The thinking was that the reputational risk to the bank over one dodgy client (like if the client was revealed as a criminal or gangster, and that he banked with you) was just not worth the risk. So I have trouble picturing Singapore welcoming in this kind of ticking time-bomb...

No, some just refuse to do business with Americans, and the others won't let an American perform any kind of investments or have any accounts more complicated than a 0.05% interest savings acct.

Still looking for recommendations for investments here

Why does it have to be based in SG? Couldn't you off-shore it?

[rajagainstthemachine]

Nice blog on Cyprus:

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/0 ... all-fubar/

[JR8]

Nice blog on Cyprus:
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/0 ... all-fubar/

Nice article from The Economist on Krugman:

'The one-handed economist'
http://www.economist.com/node/2208841

[Wd40]

When I was a kid I used to collect stamps and then I got bored and started collecting coins of different countries and then I got got bored and started collecting currency notes of different countries.

I still remember I had a Cyprus pound note, it was a priced possession, those days it was pound and not euro. I also had Italian lira, Portuguese escudo and oh yes I had the Singapore 1 dollar note and I used to laugh at the way they write Singapore, Singapura, in 4 languages lol.

That was the last time I heard the word Cyprus(in the 80s) and now I hear about them, so sad.

[rajagainstthemachine]

Nice blog on Cyprus:
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/0 ... all-fubar/

Nice article from The Economist on Krugman:

'The one-handed economist'
http://www.economist.com/node/2208841

haha every other economist says on the other hand!! nice one

[rajagainstthemachine]

When I was a kid I used to collect stamps and then I got bored and started collecting coins of different countries and then I got got bored and started collecting currency notes of different countries.

I still remember I had a Cyprus pound note, it was a priced possession, those days it was pound and not euro. I also had Italian lira, Portuguese escudo and oh yes I had the Singapore 1 dollar note and I used to laugh at the way they write Singapore, Singapura, in 4 languages lol.

That was the last time I heard the word Cyprus(in the 80s) and now I hear about them, so sad.

Interestingly I recall, A few months before they had merged with the Euro the value of 1 Cypriot Pound was about 120-130 INR
I was like holy hell