Bye bye Euro?

Cyprus bailout: Euro haters couldn't have done better.

If you had asked me to come up with a scheme to undermine trust in the Euro and trust in governments, I might have given you just the scheme now cooked up for the "bailout" of Cyprus.

Make it so that the "little guy" gets fleeced.

Yeah. You have a couple of thousand euros in savings, sure, we'll take 6.75% as a one off levy for the greater good.

Of course, the EU grandes wanted to get their hands on the Russian "black" money in Cyprus and grab a few pink backs from the Greeks who moved their larger untaxed funds to the island next door.

They compensate people by giving them "shares" in the banks -- whooha, and who pays what fees, and how does that work if your bank is privately held and does not do shares? When can they sell the shares they did not ask for?

If Russians own 50% of all the money in the banks, have you just handed over a majority of shares in one one more banks to Russians? 

Did the Germans come up with this? Maybe thinking that the now almost 25 year old "solidarity tax" to build up the former East German lands has done "so well", why not make the Southern Europeans contribute a bit to their own bailout in a one off withholding?

Bonkers, bonkers.

The dollar will say thank you, and for the paranoid computer nerds their bitcoin rates will reach new heights.

Someone just showed their true colors -- they must have been itching to do this levy thing but didn't dare earlier -- send your meeting minutes to the press to prove us wrong...

Looking at the folks in high finance, all we can do is ask: high on what?

Can you please put my grandma on the board of the European Central Bank for some real life perspective?

[Update 18 March] The Cypriot government is trying to find ways of relief for small savers; the British government will reimburse the UK military stationed in Cyprus; Paul Krugman sounds his dire warning; Asian stock markets are down.
The long-term resentment....

Euro Saint Angela stated that the levy "was an instrument designed to make those responsible contribute to the effort" , which we read as: if you have a couple of thou in a bank in Cyprus you are partly responsible for the crisis.

The European bank insurance scheme akin to the US FDIC promises 100% of your money is safe up to 100 Euro K.  -- but in Cyprus, your bank is being saved a couple of days before bankruptcy, so that the "your funds are safe" promise can be circumvented with a "levy".

[Update 20 March] Cyprus parliament has nixed the bailout plan. Writes one German commentator in a big paper: the EU cannot change course because that would open up the EU for blackmail. Says the K-Landnews editor: are you kidding me, the EU and blackmail go together like cows and milk.
Are we the only people who see the botched bailout as a neat example of double standards with a hefty dose of beggars can't be choosers?

[Update 25 March] Euro down against the Dollar by some 2 Euro cent. Cyprus a template for future rescues. Told you so.