Cyprus is the 5th EU country to receive a bailout, behind Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal. Apparently rich Russians like to deposit wads of cash in Cypriot banks, which doesn't make anyone too happy that they've lost a boatload of cash.
But to get the deal, Cyprus banks had to agree to a "special" tax of 6.75% on accounts under 100,000 euros and 10% on accounts above that.
That's poof! Ten percent of your money gone because the government decides to reach into a pretty rickety banking system one weekend.
So naturally there was a run on ATMs this weekend since the government was supposed to vote on this today but put it off until tomorrow. Consequently ATMs shut down: ran out of money. Refused to cooperate.
One wonders how many politicians withdrew all their money before this happened.
Corruption among politicians and finger pointers at bankers. Imagine that.
They say this is a one time only deal; anyone who believes that must not be watching the overtaxed, overpromised, creaky pension plans and deals Europeans have made with their unionized workers.
We wait to see what happens tomorrow.
Zerohedge says it's "just the beginning." And here.
And Mead.
So everyone's wondering if it could happen here.
Let me remind what happened when everyone bought gold in the hope of keeping some of their savings during the bleak years of the Depression.
Along came Roosevelt's executive order 6102 of 1933 in which citizens were accused of "hoarding gold," and thus were forbidden to even possess it.
Much of that was not enforced, but when some grandchildren discovered $80 million worth of gold coins in their grandfather's safety deposit box, somehow the government managed to take them to court and win, claiming the gold coins were "probably" stolen since there was no track record of their ownership.
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