This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Political Fallout Begins: Former Cyprus President Named In Loan Write-Offs Leading To Banking Insolvency
A few days ago, when news hit that Cyprus has begun investigating who the people were who had managed to pull cash out of nation's insolvent banks, both during the capital control "blackout" period and previously, we asked "how much longer will the rule of law remain in Cyprus once full blown class warfare is unleashed, and the 99% are generously handed the list of the 1% who were "informed" enough to pull their money from the flaming sovereign equivalent of Bernie Madoff, while every other uninsured depositor is facing losses of up to 80%, and soon 100%?" We may get the answer much sooner than expected, as the first iteration of this list: one naming the beneficiaries of millions of loans written off by the now insolvent Cyprus banks and therefore indirectly responsible for the "impairment" of the banks' depositors, was released yesterday by Greece's daily Ethnos newspaper. But what virtually assures substantial political fallout is that among the people listed is Cyprus' former president, George Vassiliou.
Kathimerini summarized the situation as follows:
A list of Cypriot companies and politicians that allegedly had millions of euros in loans written off by the three Cypriot lenders at a center of an unprecedented banking crisis on the Mediterranean island has been forward to Cyprus's parliamentary ethics committee after its publication in Greece's daily Ethnos newspaper.
According to the revelations, Bank of Cyprus, Cyprus Popular Bank (Laiki) and Hellenic Bank -- which were earlier this week acquired by Greece's Piraeus Bank -- has forgiven companies, MPs and local authority officials millions of euros in loans over the past five years. The list reportedly features the names of politicians from all Cypriot parties except Social Democracy (EDEK) and the Social Ecology Movement (KKO).
Readers may or may not be shocked to learn that corruption and cronyism, in broad terms, was alive and well in Cyprus in the months and years leading to the failure of the local banking system with its publicly elected politicians at the very forefront:
According to Ethnos, Bank of Cyprus wrote off the 2.8-million-euro loan of a hotel with ties to the communist-rooted Progressive Party (AKEL) and forgave significant portions of many other loans. For instance a national labor union is said to have been forgiven 193,000 euros of a 554,000-euro loan. An unnamed company was forgiven 110,000 euros from a 1.83-million-euro loan, a prominent deputy of the centrist Democratic Rally (DISY) party saw 101,000 euros of a 168,000-euro loan written off and a company owned by the brother of a former minister of the conservative Democratic Party (DIKO) had 1.28 million euros of a 1.59-million-euro loan written off.
The list refers to several other MPs and the mayor of large city who allegedly had significant portions of their loans forgiven by Bank of Cyprus. Companies linked to a member of the bank's board, to the daughter-in-law of a DIKO deputy and several others also appear to have been offered significant loan relief by the Bank of Cyprus.
As for Laiki Bank, it is said to have written off several loans taken out by MPs of AKEL and DISY. The bank also appears to have written off 5.8 million US dollars in debt from a company whose majority shareholder is said to be a well-known Cypriot politician. The ex wife of a senior ministry official and a company owned by a local ambassador also appear to have been facilitated.
Today, as the fallout avalanche from the release of the list begins to accelerate, we get even more information courtesy of Cyprus-Mail, which names none other than a company majority-owned by the former president, as being a direct beneficiary of the broke banks' depositor-funded generosity:
The government yesterday reaffirmed its intention to fully investigate the banking sector, as a list surfaced with names of current and former state officials who allegedly had their loans written off by banks.
The list, published in Greece, contains the names of former and current MPs as well as other prominent individuals, including former president George Vassiliou. According to the report, Vassiliou held a 51 per cent stake in a company that agreed to have $5.8 million written off.
And now that Cyprus is broke and facing a depression it is probably a good time to do some serious Monday Morning quater-bailouting:
The government said the matter would be investigated as part of a wider probe into what caused the collapse of the island’s economy and banking system.
Three former Supreme Court judges were appointed on Thursday to look into the debacle.
Their mandate includes the investigation of the “the events and decisions relating to the provision or write off or reduction of loans or the removal of guarantees or banks affording other concessions, in Cyprus and abroad.”
The government said it would handle the matter with full transparency and would not hesitate to hold anyone accountable as long as any improprieties were substantiated.
Sure enough, in order to avoid being held "accountable" the explanations have begun. Enter the former president:
Former president Vassillou said his stake in the company, which was operated by his former son-in-law, was acquired after he provided guarantees against its large obligations.
The company, ERE (Middle East) Ltd owed Laiki $23,988,542 and €1,081,672, including interest, the former president said in a written statement.
The amounts had been also guaranteed by four other people who eventually refused to honour their obligations and were taken to court.
Vassiliou said that despite his share being much smaller, he agreed to pay Laiki $21 million and settle the debt.
Based on the agreement, Vassiliou paid $15 million while the balance was going to be settled in two instalments of €3 million in 2012 and 2014.
“In return, Laiki was to relieve me of the old interest, something that is a usual and long-standing practice,” Vassiliou said.
Because the 2012 instalment was linked to the return of a guarantee as soon as a – still pending -- project was completed in Qatar, it had been agreed for the payment to be pushed back until then, Vassiliou said.
The former president said he would wait for the findings of the attorney-general.
Other politicians have decided that the best defense is a strong offense:
DISY MP Prodromos Prodromou, whose name was also on the list, said he was suing the media outlets responsible, and the Central Bank of Cyprus.
Prodromou denied ever having a loan written off, saying the case in question concerned a forgery on his bank account.
“The person responsible for the forgery was brought before court and convicted,” Prodromou said. “The bank recognised part of the responsibility for the charges through forgery and agreed to share the loss.”
AKEL-linked trade union PEO was also included in the list over a €3.0 million loan.
Needless to say, everyone else on the list is also coming up with a bevy of excuses:
Former DISY MP Sofoklis Hadjiyiannis said his case concerned interest and other charges that were added on illegally after he settled his debt to the bank.
AKEL MP Nicos Katsourides was also caught up in the affair after he was linked with a company that allegedly had a debt written off. Katsourides said neither he nor any family member had any relation with the company’s share structure although his son had been employed by the outfit at some point in the past.
Katsourides said he had contacted the attorney-general and asked him to hand the list over to the investigating commission looking into the economic debacle.
DISY MP Soteris Sampson also denied the allegations, saying he would make public his bank transactions as soon as they were provided by the bank.
Former agriculture minister Timis Efthymiou said his obligations to the Bank of Cyprus stemming from him being a shareholder in a company “have been met by paying off a loan within the framework of a legal settlement with the bank in 2008.”
And so on. What the common theme here is that the very same Members of Parliament who were so vocal in rejecting the insured depositors' impairment just to save their skins from a public mutiny (but so quick to sacrifice the wealthier citizens and small and medium corporations to a haircut that may be as deposit large as 100%), did everything in their power to avoid a vote on the final bank "resolution" which effectively handed over the country's sovereignty into the hands of the Troika and its liquidators, but not before they themselves were among the key beneficiaries of the impairments on the banking system's asset side.
It is these bad assets and impaired losses, as well as investing money in Greek bonds, and other worthless "assets", that ultimately ended up forcing the restructuring of the bank and the cram up of the liability side up to and including the unsecured loans known as deposits.
Perhaps if the Cypriot public wants to find a scapegoat to its troubles, it should focus its anger not only at the Russian Oligarchs and the Troika, but to those who were most complicit in betraying the public's trust: the same politicians who were elected to protect their citizens and the country's constitution (flagrantly abused as per yesterday's revelations), including the very president of the nation. That is, of course, if the local apathetic population has not been zombified too much to even care about why billions in wealth was just confiscated from it. Because if that is indeed the case, they, and everyone else who just sits idly by and does nothing as the global banking syndicate appropriates ever more middle-class wealth, deserves everything coming their way.
- 26220 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -


Scum!
REVOLUTION!!! 99% NEEDS TO RISE!
Unsubstantiated - but material - word has it that the seized deposits are also being used to pay-down senior bond holders in the banks.
Bankers = Criminals
This isn't complicated. Now excuse me while I go plant some gold in the back 40.
- Some men rob you with a six gun, others with a fountain pen.
Good bank is needed for taking deposits from honest people, bad bank is needed for hiding the corruption. It's plain and simple robbery by white collar criminals.
as I keep trying to splain to the grandkids, it isn't theft
theft is when
property Pt is acquired by
person T (the thief), and
property Pv is lost by
person V (the victim),
where Pt and Pv are the same.
an orderly unwinding of a bank balance sheet is when the bank forgives
loans totaling Pt issued to
persons T, and bails-in
deposits totaling Pv from
persons V,
where Pt and Pv are the same.
totally and completely different concepts
Slavery was completely legal too.
Safely Graze's post was most assuredly tongue-in-cheek
would love to see the equivalent u.s. documents. there was a time when this country investigated wrong doing, at least on occasion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecora_Commission
Safely Graze's post was most assuredly tongue-in-cheek....
and chock full of functions...
"Death to Safely Graze' post"
its a barbarous relic......go plant some USD instead then dig it up in 20 years.......should be good for starting fires
Bank notes tend to rot much faster, so in 20 years you will find a empty box. If you deposit said cash with a Cyprus bank, well that is another story.
Pleeeeze ! You zh'ers sometimes amaze me.
These guys are innocent until proven guilty. However, MY recommndation is the tried and true method of guilt/innocence by buring them at the stake.
If the accused screams, you may consider him guilty.
If he remains silent during the roasting, we may thus conclude he is innocent.
It's a fool-proof, time-tested determination of guilt or innococence.
Sometimes the old ways are better...
wonder which way Jon Corzine prefers
whichever way, he's guilty.
was reminded of Lesson 14: Some countries see firewalls as adequate. So they are now prepared to “burn” stakeholders who were previously protected;
If he burns..... ?
he's made of wood!
and therefore?
He's a woody?!
A duck!
No
No
A Witch
pinocchio!!! land of the long noses! and getting longer
The rule of law is Already dead - why is it considered good business practises or savvy decisions when the .01% engage in crony capitalism and rule breaking taking home 90+% of new gdp but when the 99% FINALLY get pissed off enough to begin to complain and suddenly its
Class Warfare -
At what point does the 99% get to fight back? After the knifes been drawn across our throats?
"The rule of law is Already dead"
This is a true statement for those at the top and those at the bottom. Those of us caught in the middle however are very aware that for us the rule of law still applies with dire consequences for breaking it...
I spoke with a very good customer of mine who is RCMP here in Canukistan - he tells me that the average depot dude is very aware of what we on ZH see going on around us. They are some of the biggest "preppers" we know as they see the rule of law being tossed out the window around them. They are scared to the point where they have had internal postngs warning them to be ready to personally to take care of their families and themselves for extended periods of time without help of any kind.
Anyways - this cop tells me he is well diverisified. He has cash, silver, gold and lead. LOL. I laugh at him and tell him to be careful. Big brother is listening. :-)
One day soon the middle class wil begin to wake up.... they will realize that Heinlein was right:
"I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do."
The system we have now is not a system of law but rather a system of rules and regulations meant not to govern us but rather to heard and control us. They are demeaning and insulting. Indeed, law is simple - do not steal, do not murder, do not assault your fellow man and honour your contracts.
When people begin to realize this - and cases like Cyprus cause us to take pause and examine these things - then they will draw the line in the sand Sam Adams style - they will begin to relaize that life is a risk and some will risk it all by betting on freedom:
“If you love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”
Many are about to care very little about what their sleeping neighbours think of them. They will act out individually at first. They will be persecuted. Those in the wings watching but aware will get angry. They will organize - fingers will be pointed - names of important people will be named as the middle class realizes they are nothing more than just men with titles. Neigbour will turn on neighbour and the corrupt and powerful will scramble to hide from the faceless anger of a society bent on their downfall.
THE WRATH OF THE AWAKENED SAXON
by Rudyard Kipling
It was not part of their blood,
It came to them very late,
With long arrears to make good,
When the Saxon began to hate.
They were not easily moved,
They were icy -- willing to wait
Till every count should be proved,
Ere the Saxon began to hate.
Their voices were even and low.
Their eyes were level and straight.
There was neither sign nor show
When the Saxon began to hate.
It was not preached to the crowd.
It was not taught by the state.
No man spoke it aloud
When the Saxon began to hate.
It was not suddently bred.
It will not swiftly abate.
Through the chilled years ahead,
When Time shall count from the date
That the Saxon began to hate.
Of course I could be comletely wrong about all of this..... time will tell.
Peace and wisdom and happy Easter all.
"It was not suddently bred.
It will not swiftly abate.
Through the chilled years ahead,
When Time shall count from the date
That the Saxon began to hate."
What you mean, "we," Kemo Sabe?' -Dream Act-er
Oh, let's hope the level of depravity and corruption reaches a depth low enough to awaken the people of Cyprus from their stupor.
"Oh, let's hope the level of depravity and corruption reaches a depth low enough to awaken the people of-- the US--from their stupor."
So that they too can beat on pots and pans in bootless protest like the Argentinians? That is what happens when you lose the right to bear arms.
I'm told a baseball bat leaves a sizeable dent in craniums...
i wouldn't mind some pots and pans here; it would break the wooly-headed silence over much of the land. for all of the u.s.'s extensive gun ownership, the last decade's bipartisan plunge into the police state has met with little opposition. of course this may change.
the top of the list of per capita civilian gun ownership is a motley but interesting group:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_guns_per_capita_by_country
Of course they are, that was the point. Those uninsured deposits are being used and are never being replaced.
that would be illegal
even though the deposits are uninsured, they still rank pari passu with other unsecured creditors..like bonds...junior means junior to unsecured senior bonds and unsecured deposits
mind you..there is no rule of law in a failed nation state like cyprus - just a bunch of people who can still afford to be polite (for now)
When there is nothing left to do.....rise.
When we stop seeing ourselves as separate
from those who live in Cyprus,
from those who live in Detroit,
from those who live next door,
then we might take action.
dont forget its not the 99% and the 1%...its the 50% then the 49% being paid by the government, then the 1%
how many government workers are going to want to get off the teat and return to the private sector (land of milk and honey?)
Domesticated animals don't fight back.
And God spake all these words, saying,
I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
5. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
6. Thou shalt not kill.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
8. Thou shalt not steal.
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.
Napoleon Bonaparte
"Religion is the opium of the people." - Karl Marx.
It won't work this time around.
Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.
Then the rich need to get Religion
Goldilocks, you appear to have lost your balance in the middle. Your list of impossible ideals always backfires and causes the opposite to happen in the real world. Futhermore, even that list was intended to only apply to the "in" group, while not to anyone outside of that group. Those commandments were just old-fashioned bullshit, promoted by big bullies. They enabled those with a weapon in one hand to operate with those commandments in the other hand. The Bible is a small part of the data base, demonstrating the general pattern that human realities are always organized lies, operating organized robberies, while those doing that typically tend to assert that "God" said so.
I don't covet my neighbor's ass. Now his wife's ass is another thing, which is where #7 comes in.
And it is (almost) Sunday, so I gotta rest.
Shit, they got me comin' and goin'.
Get thee to a nunnery, Goldilocks; remove thyself from the Zero Hedge crowd of sinners.
Or just fuck off. Whatever.
"Life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim." - Bertrand Russell, British author, mathematician, & philosopher (1872 - 1970)
"Life is a God-damned, stinking, treacherous game and nine hundred and ninety-nine men out of a thousand are bastards." - Theodore Dreiser, quoting an unnamed newspaper editor
Goldilocks, it is NOT "nine hundred and ninety-nine men out of a thousand are bastards."
It is 1,000 in 1,000. There are no people who do not eat and shit. Everyone participates in the same sorts of energy systems. We need to start thinking in the opposite ways to what we do now. There is nobody who does not survive by operating some system of organized lies, operating organized robbery. There is nobody whose food just jumps into their mouth!
Life is the flow of energy, without beginning or end. Our experience of life is always in the middle. We have been brainwashed to think about entropy backwards. Therefore, the ways that we understand ALL energy systems is backwards! That is a main reason why we constantly have runaway triumphant organized crime controlling the whole world, with the vast majority of people paying for a tiny minorty to skim the cream from the system. The vast majority of people are brainwashed that they should be good sheep, serving as bricks in the wall ... while their backwards ways of thinking allow the real systems to runaway doing more and more of the opposite things, without any effective resistance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4o13isDdfY
The Tax Free Tour (VPRO, Marije Meerman)
53 minute documentary of tax havens, which channel astonishing amounts of money through their usual operations. Nobody accounts for the accountants, the same as nobody guards the guardians. The accountants have basically taken control of the global organized crime operations. That accounting is BACKWARDS, because the vast majority of people have been brainwashed to think about everything backwards!
The Bible beat Bert and Ted to the punch:
For there is not a just man upon the earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.
Ecclesiastes 7:20
you know, I'm pretty sure there's a copyright violation here.
heh....but the original probably had "it shall be a sin for your leaders to take money from a bank account directly or indirectly via inflation"!
must have run out of chisels
11. Thou shalt not charge compound interest
Really AP? You might want to drop by and kick any one of my domesticated dogs just to test your theory. Ordinarily if anyone kicked any of my dogs I would probably shoot them but in your case - just testing a theory and all - I would probably just let my little pack deal with you themselves.
boiling frog syndrome. Maybe when some of the 28-38 year old's with starving children come to terms and need to feed their kids, a revolution will begin. However banksters are not stupid so they will at least try to provide food. Kind of a hedge against a guillotine
and ah would not be con-victed, by a jury of my peers...
Still crazy after all these years.
This will all end badly for bankers and politicians.
One can hope. As was mentioned by the central banksters, this is a trial balloon for the rest of the world. Therefore it becomes important to send the right message to the world banksters and politicians. This means a civil death but death.
“We decide something, put it into the room, then wait for some time what happens. If there is no big clamor and no riots, because most haven’t comprehended at all what has been decided there, then we continue – step by step, until there is no more way back.”
~Jean-Claude Juncker, Prime Minister of Luxembourg, fm. Head of the Eurogroup
what message are you, personally, sending? other than enticing others to act?
Corzine farts in your genreal direction.
Barrys taking notes
It's not who you know, it's who you blow......
Fucking leaches, all...............
@bonderoven-farm ass
What good is a political position if one can't use it to sell political favors? Look at the US Congress. The average net worth of senators is north of $3.5M and the individual wealth grows the longer one holds office. Hell, they exempted themselves from insider trading....
they exempted themselves from insider trading....
AND every other fucking law they pass.
"It's not who you know, it's who you blow......"
When it comes to blow, it definitely matters who you know!
I never would have guessed that Harry Reid was a Cypriot.
Reminds me of this: Us and Them - Pink Floyd http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcG47CpsU6c
Money does funny things to people...
And of course the citizens, the common people, those that have worked hard with honest work, saved some and took out good loans. Well, I am sure their loans were forgiven also. It is only just. Right? WRONG!
hang em all high... no more excuses, just find some olive trees and make sure there's plenty of rope
sit back and eat some popcorn as the bunch expires into the sunset
oh... for added enjoyment why not light the twilight with their cremations as an annual ritualistic blessing for the years to follow... lest we forget
ya know, for the childrens sake and awe
Didn't you hear ...
3 people were crucified in the Phillipines ... Easter atonement for their sins.
They do that every year.
"hang em all high... no more excuses, just find some olive trees and make sure there's plenty of rope"
Too humane. I suggest we bugee jump them into a blackberry thicket full of wasps.
Museum Quality, Guillotine Serious Inquiries only. (20% Cypriot discount)
don't forget the pikes
Maybe they should hold a Justin Bieber benefit concert.
Now Why would Cypriots hold a concert to benefit Justin Beiber?
Wouldn't you think they'd have something better to do like Vacation in Athens? It's cheap there, lotta open rooms....
. . . and their savings deposit deals are fantastic!
WB, I thought I was long past teeny boppers but that kid, I CANNOT stand as he permeates the fucking wires--all of them. He's fucking everywhere whining "they hate me" as drives and dunks his five Ferraris. Fuck him!
With effort you may find it entirely possible to ignore him.
Political Fallout, what the fuck is that, you retire with all your stolen wealth, free health care, and security team? Bullshit. Wake me when the fucking guillotine comes out and some fucking heads roll.
The Score:
Cyprus Bonds = 0
US Bonds = 100
Paper Gold = 20
Physical Gold = 200
http://www.gold-price-girls.com
http://www.gold-price-girls.com/portfolio-gpgs/
there ...fixed it for ...er....me!
And the people of Cyprus just go Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Regardless of whether a politician or his crony technically broke a law, having the light shined on their crony dealings is (or should I say, was) one of the key foundations of a democracy. An independent 4th estate (the press), coupled with separation of powers and balance of powers, was architected to result in the eventual exposure of these sorts of shenanigans, and the politicians involved becoming unelectable.
Bring on the limelight. Let them all "explain."
(Democracy ain't broken; it is just a couple decades overdue for its tune up.)
...and if they broke a law (which I am sure most did), let the wrath unfold.
question is: why the list now? how come we get a list after the fact? as usual somehow the paper gets a list from someone who had it but kept it in his office just in case...Bull if you ask me.
"Readers may or may not be shocked to learn that corruption and cronyism, in broad terms, was alive and well in Cyprus in the months and years leading to the failure of the local banking system with its publicly elected politicians at the very forefront:"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjbPi00k_ME
Sounds like they got their money out extra early.
Secret Service Weaponry!
Central Bankers/Planners have become the 2013 version of Bonnie and Clyde. LOL
Was that AR15 with the 9 magazines of 30 rounds each a POS .... it didn't start out firing very fast .... then the rate of fire slowed down .... and was irregular .... then he went semi-auto .... he had no choice .... the AR15 has poor architecture .... it can't be fixed !
no matter what we do the govt is always a step ahead. think about it, lets say we collect physical gold as they call it now and some day our beloved govt says owning gold is illegal so they come by and confiscate the efin thing...just keep working (in all three jobs that I proudly hold) and enjoy my free time...I hope you do the same.
The Troika is going to go Apeshit over this!
The Trioka is even more corrupt than the Cypriot Government, and got 'pimp slapped'...
If they are not hungry why would they rise up? You need a Demigod that speaks with fire and thunder to awaken feeble and dormant senses. Of course when the opportunity arises there he will be. It takes a little time. All will work out as it should.
And there shall ultimately be some form of judgement. I do not believe that we get away Scott free....
Mightily shall the mighty be judged
"Mightily shall the mighty be judged"
This definitely needs some theme music.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdIev12fCPs
Oh eloquent one. I think that's one t to many.
The world is being manipulated by the "Troika". This steady trickle of class and political warfare, of us vs. them, is not sincere governing. All the while the Troika is being paid 100 cents on the dollar. Not even Laiki's 9B liquidity lifeline was off'd!!
This is a country of 800,000 people. All they have to do is say "no" and float their own currency. Its no easy solution - but it will be sincere and Cypriots will steer the boat.
This test seems to be going better than planned... Why didn't that guy drive the dozer through the bank on the first day? Must have hoped it would get better.
Got some scape goats too. Pawns that got perks they didn't understand and now have shit on their hands. How many private jets still at the airport?
Surprise, surprise. No not really. Wake me up when heads start exploding from shotgun shells.
Corruptionin the Banking Industry and Government....Who wouda thought?
Corruptionin the Banking Industry and Government....Who wouda thought?
Add MSM to the list. Would you constantly lie, day after day, for f*ck all??
start your engines... of your bulldozers.
Billions of 'write-offs' sitting in Swiss banks I bet.
Cyprus Day 2: As the Dust Settles, Talk of Reciprocity and Whispers of Retribution (edited)
“If it happened anywhere else, there would have been riots in the streets”
Patrick Henningsen
21st Century Wire
March 30, 2013--On Friday at high noon the banks of Cyprus opened for the second day in a row and with minimal queues, and almost no trouble from a citizenry who have become the latest abused poster child for the global financial banking syndicate’s campaign of financial destruction through Europe…
Now that the danger of an immediate run on the banks has subsided, we spent Friday talking to residents to try and find out what caused this crisis and who might be held responsible.
Former President Demetris Christofias has become one such focus of the people’s anger.
Lucious Petrou, a retired local farmer says, ”Imagine the timing of Christofias resigning only five weeks ago, and then our banks closing their doors three weeks later?”
“Our Communist President came into power with a 1 billion euro surplus and left with what will be a 17.5 billion euro debt to the international bankers. Where is he now?”
Most residents are confident that Christofias will be dragged into the dock during the upcoming judicial inquiry into the banking collapse.
...Demetris Christofias came to power in 2008 through a coalition government, after campaigning on the populist platform of the “reunification of Cyprus”, bringing the Greek and Turkish sides together in a bi-zonal federal state. The people liked the idea, but instead they got an economic meltdown. ...
Other shadowy players in this story mentioned in the cafes of Nicosia include the USA, who with the help of Henry Kissenger, were the architects of the Turkish invasion in 1974 and masters of the IMF today. Like the British, the US also have a military presence on the island to go with their 300 plus other bases and installations scattered throughout Turkey. Many Cypriots believe that the US have been using their multi-lateral institutions like the IMF to kick Russian influence – and money out of Cyprus, and thus, out of Europe. There are an estimated 50,000 Russians living in Cyprus, concentrated around the city of Limassol, along with many off-shore corporations, and hundreds of thousands more coming to visit year-round. If the US, or the EU wanted to lean on Russia – particularly in Syria, then this would be the first place to start.
One other name kept coming up again, and again, as we combed the back streets of the old town in Nicosia. His name is Andreas Vgenopoulos, the Greek tycoon and chairman of the controversial Marfin Investment Group, and the man who inflated the now failed Laiki Bank’s financial balloon – which was doomed to pop three weeks ago, taking the whole of the Cyprus economy down with it.
The story behind his inflated success and failure is a bizarre Ménage à trois between Dubai, Athens and Nicosia. It appears that Mr Vgenopoulos steered a massive ponzi scheme which attracted the usual suspect crowd of high-flying financiers, naive and corrupt politicians and overpaid government bureaucrats, who flocked to his over-cooked honey pot of accessible capital backed up the same junk bonds and overvalued paper which brought down Cyprus’s northern EU neighbor Greece only 2 years earlier. By the time Cypriots knew what was going on, the bottom had already fallen out of their balance sheet – forcing Nicosia to go cap in hand to the ECB, and later to the IMF.
Vgenopoulos, it seems, was the Troika’s agent provocateur in this story – he lit the match, left the building with all the loot and watched it burn from across the sea..
Last but not least, people seemed very suspect, and somewhat offended, by the Germans, who magically opened-up their bond market, promoting investment into everything from solar energy to “secure investment” – at the very same time the Cyprus economy was flushed down the Euro- toilet by the Troika.
What’s worse, however, is that the elite Troika (Brussels, Berlin and the IMF) had known about this contagion and also that Cyprus would collapse well in advance of this month’s bank holiday – but they just stood back and watched as the moussaka hit the fan, to swoop in with more crisis loans which has ultimately given them complete financial control over the economic destiny of the island.... Even worse... proceeds to steal the addict’s furniture, sell-off his house and cut the wages and pensions of everyone living in the house. …
http://21stcenturywire.com/2013/03/30/cyprus-day-2-as-the-dust-settles-whispers-of-reciprocity-and-retribution/
Cyprus Day 1: Fear and Loathing in Nicosia: “We’re treating this like a crime scene” http://21stcenturywire.com/2013/03/29/cyprus-day-1-fear-and-loathing-in-nicosia/Well done J.R. +1 I like fellow fact finders ;-)
Who annointed you to be a fact police ?
My, my. What’s all this vitriol over facts? And, at this point, mentioning police and facts in the same sentence has a ring of mainstream censorship.
By the way, thanks, Yen.
Sorry, I was just trying to stir things up .... it was a good post +1 !
Thanks, Monedas, it was awfully nice of you to respond. :-)
Thanks!
democrazy is a incurable disease.
I am not interested in thes write offs as much as I am interested in what amounts left Cyprus in the month before the whole show blew up. I suspect that those in the know had more than an inkling of what was going to happen.
We need an anthem for the bent over . . . like, "WE ARE THE FUCKED . . . "
How many names were "lost" off the list?
Folks, this is no fucking surprise.
Dis taint nutin' .... wait 'til some of you .... find out .... you can't "access" .... the gold .... you think .... you have ?
some of us aren't silly enough to buy paper gold...
English and Democracy .... they're like making sausage .... not a very pretty sight .... but .... I feel sorry for the rest !
This is why you have a second amendment - to take these motherfuckers out back and shoot them in the head.
As we all see everyday the courts don't work.
Be as clever as your wants bankers, lobbyists and their fucking smart lawyers.
America is NOT Cyprus.
rope.
“If it happened anywhere else, there would have been riots in the streets”
bullshit.
no, it wouldn't have been that. people always think or hope this to be the case, but it isn't. it's almost never the case. look around you. you see any bankers swinging from lamp posts ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD? who's gonna do it? who's gonna be the first citizens to publicly lynch some bankers and/or politicians?
no one-- NO ONE-- needs riots. what is needed is a calm, cool, collected, calculated LYNCHING of banksters AND politicians. ANYWHERE. because you know, as do all the other ZHers, the shit that hit Cyprus is coming here.
did the greeks lynch a banker or politician yet? nope.
cyprus? nope, not yet, anyway, and i'll bet you they won't.
who's next? italy? spain? portugal? ireland? all those people gonna let the bankers & politicians run roughshod over everyone like they have in greece & cyprus?
what about here? when this shit hits american banks, let's say YOUR BANK, and let's assume you are foolish enough to have left cash in the bank; you find out your bank is now shuttered and you can't get that cash from (what was) your account. are you going to form a posse and go lynch a banker or politician? are you prepared? do you have a plan for this? anyone gonna help you? you think you have the stones to lynch a banker?
the simple fact is this: not one of you are ready. not one of you, which includes me. not one of you are ready. because as we sit here and read and debate these events and wonder, the citizens of THIS COUNTRY SHOULD already be mobilizing against the bankers and politicians in order to prevent what is happening in cyprus now from happening here at all.
that ain't gonna happen. too many armchair warriors & tough talk. no one-- NOT ONE OF YOU, including me-- are prepared to do this. it ain't gonna happen.
the bankers are gonna have their way, the politicians are gonna have their way.
look at the scandals (i hate using that word, it's been bandied about so that it's meaning has been lost) that have happened in the last 20 years. shit, look at 9-11. anyone hang for that? anyone hang for kennedy? anyone hang for iraq? enron? mf global?
nope, not one (guilty) person has been lynched. the neocon/zionist/bankster scum that took over this country's government are free to roam about and do whatever the fuck they want to; you know why? because they know the citizens of this country won't do a fucking thing about it. they can get away with murder; they do, they have and they will continue. period.
Italy and Spain will hopefully be a different story. Since there is no way to backstop these countries, it would be good to see an Italian or Spanish exit from the EU. Hopefully, soon after, the rest begin to break off...
One day we will be saying "they came for Cyprus but we said and did nothing.....and then one day they came for us."
There is so much indignation about what happed in Cyprus!
Who should stand up when a bank has problems? I think that first the owners because they have their share of responsability in the failure. And then the depositors, because they assumed a risk in holding their money in that bank, a risk that was compensated with a good rate (especially in Cyprus). Everyone who has a deposit in a bank knows the amount of deposit that is guaranteed.
One could argue that when a trust problem arise, there will be a bank run and the bank can have troubles. There is exactly the point where the central bank should act (only if the bank is solvent), providind liquidity. If the bank is not solvent, then owners and depositors (up to the guaranteed amount) could take a 100% loss. It is logical and fair so.
There will be always an explanation about the importance of the banks or other "system relevant like" arguments.
Why should the tax payer be the ultimate insurer of the uninsured deposits? If one has a 500.000 euro account, it should have the minimum intelligence to ensure the rest 400.000.
When the principles are not followed, there will always be trouble.
perhaps the reason that there are no riots is because a large percentage of the population of cyprus is everyday folks who have less than a 100k , and they lost no cash.
perhaps, a large percentage of the population of cyprus in the 100,001 and above crowd did in fact move their money out of laiki and the boc into safer havens, into safer amounts, because to have saved over a 100k in the first place takes some smarts. especially if you are a business.
except for the two big casino banks, of course, who were not allowed to roll over (buy time) their losses by having the gov of cyprus take the deal on a fixed percentage for the over 100k crowd and keep those two banks 'going'. perhaps because the cyp parliament knew buying time was only going to make matters worse and that resolution was the best answer.
because as it is becoming increasingly clear to all who can read, the topic of confiscation of deposits was was in no way a surprise to cypriots. the amount, yes. but that there was substantial risk, no.
and perhaps, just perhaps, as the particulars of laiki and boc become public documents one can make a more precise analysis of who was smart and who wasn't.
in the mean time, the protesting by others than those losing their bank jobs has been....well....quiet at its loudest.
time will reveal more, as it sometimes does.
perhaps.
:)
hey, have you the one about the billionaire depositor who walked into a bank, and no matter how long the time line, never came out? that's because it wasn't a bank. it was a maze-ing.