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Lessons For US Citizens From The Deposit Confiscation In Cyprus
Submitted by Simon Black of Sovereign Man blog,
It was almost exactly one year ago to the day that an entire nation was frozen out of its savings… overnight.
Cypriots went to bed on Friday thinking everything was fine. By the next morning, they had no way to pay bills or buy food.
It’s certainly a chilling reminder of how quickly things can change. And why.
The entire crisis sprang from a mountain of debt. The government had accumulated too much debt. The banking system had accumulated too much debt.
And banks had lost a lot of their customers’ money making risky, stupid bets on things like Greek government bonds.
By March 2013, Cypriot banks were almost entirely devoid of cash.
Sure, customers could log on to a website and check their bank balances.
But there’s a huge difference between a number displayed on a screen, and a well-capitalized bank that actually holds abundant cash.
The government was too insolvent to bail anyone out. And as a member of the eurozone, Cyprus didn’t have the ability to print its own money.
So they did the only thing they could think of– confiscate customer deposits.
And they imposed capital controls on top of that to make sure that people couldn’t withdraw their remaining funds out of the banks as soon as the freeze was lifted.
It was a truly despicable act. But again, even though it all unfolded overnight, the warning signs were building for at least a year. Especially the debt.
When countries, central banks, and commercial banks accumulate too much debt, and specifically too much debt relative to assets, you can be certain there is trouble ahead in the system.
Think about it like your own personal finances. If you have a million dollars in debt, that seems like a lot. But if you own a home worth $5 million, you are still in good shape financially.
If, on the other hand, you have a million dollar mortgage for a home that’s worth $250,000, you’re in deep trouble.
The US government’s official, ‘on the books’ debt now exceeds $17.5 trillion. This is an enormous figure.
If the Uncle Sam just happened to have $20 trillion or so laying around, however, this debt load wouldn’t be a big deal. But that’s not the case.
By the US government’s own admission, their own financial statements show net equity (assets minus liabilities) of MINUS $16.9 trillion.
That’s including ALL the assets: Every tank. Every bullet. Every body scanner. Every highway.
Then you have to look at the Central Bank, which is itself teetering on insolvency.
The Federal Reserve’s balance sheet has exploded since 2008, and right now the Fed’s net equity (assets minus liabilities) is about $56 billion.
That’s a razor-thin 1.34% of its $4 trillion in assets (it was 4.5% before the crisis).
Here’s the thing: in its own annual report, the Fed just admitted that it had accumulated ‘unrealized losses’ totaling $53 billion. This is almost the Fed’s ENTIRE EQUITY.
So in the Land of the Free, you now have an insolvent government and insolvent central bank underpinning a commercial banking system that is incentivized to make risky, stupid bets with their customers’ money.
To be fair, I’m not suggesting that bank accounts in the US are going to be frozen tomorrow morning.
But a rational person should recognize that the warning signs are very similar to what they were in Cyprus last year.
And if there is one thing we can learn from the Cyprus bail-in, it’s that it behooves any rational person to have a plan B, even if you think the future holds nothing but sunshine and smiley faces.
Having a plan B can mean a lot of different things depending on your situation– moving some funds abroad, securing a second source of income, having an escape hatch overseas, owning physical gold, holding extra cash, etc.
You’re not going to be worse off for having a plan B based on the possibility that there -could- be some problems down the road.
But if those consequences are ever realized,and Plan B becomes Plan A, it might just turn out to be the smartest move you’ve ever made.
If you think this makes sense then I encourage you to sign up for our free Notes From the Field if you haven’t already done so, and you can also share this article with your friends below so they’re not without a plan B if things do take a turn for the worse.
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Isn't Cyprus like really far away? Could never hapen here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Can't_Happen_Here
Oh Yeah - Edward Angly
(Things are great)
I don't need a Plan B when I already have a Plan 9 From Outer Space.
My suggested Plan B would be to include almost all of what is included above (inc. 666's Plan B) as well as all the suggested items in all of the posts below.
No one knows what is going to happen.
Anything held overseas should be held by people you really trust.
At least our deposits will be less here in California where there is a 33% Denmark like rate of capital gains tax. They could call it a "pre-confiscation".
if Plan A = go long
then Plan B = margin up to btfd?? or levarage everything to btfath???
Only one plan...........
BUY MORE SILVER AND GOLD !!!!!!
Plan B ullets..
ullion..
eans..
Plan B roke.. What happens when you put your paper in an overseas bank?
I'd say the correct answer is: Plan A + B_part1 (BTFD). It's what the Rottenchildren do.
The advantage they have over you is... Timing. They seem to bat close to 1,000 on when to buy and when to sell. It's as though they have... Psychic Foreknowledge.
p.s. Once you got Timing right, using Leverage gets real easy.
Comrade Obama recently introduced "Myra"...eventually all American deposits will be re invested in Myra's...The USSA will never, ever confiscate deposits like in Cyprus...American depositor's money is safe.
sarc off
word up - American's would never be forced to pay into a ponzi retirement scheme against their will...again!?!
I doubt it will be done as a straight bail-in. They will sell it an emergency measure to strengthen YOUR country's finances so in exchange for your money, you will get a bond that matures in the year 3598. Each bond will have a present day value of $0.01 and will be valued at $1,000,000 at maturity so you'll know it's a good deal. Similar to an EE savings bond, the bond itself will be denominated in it's value at maturity, or $1,000,000, so you'll know it's a great deal and it'll be the patriotic thing to do.
To Simon Black (or his Rep),
do Crimean banks take Yankee FRNs? Can you open an account w/o being there? Is this covered in your Subscription?
Or should we just go to http://www.hsbc.ru/1/2/rus/en/home
lol. Dodd-Frank Title II codifies bail-ins within the US
It's even mentioned on page 10 of the FDIC's own strategy guide.
A large portion of your CA$H really is safer under the mattress, in the frozen spaghetti sauce or in the HVAC ducts...
It's not like you're losing much when they pay you 0.1% to borrow your money you are an unsecured creditor...
>>>A large portion of your CA$H really is safer under the mattress, in the frozen spaghetti sauce or in the HVAC ducts...
It's really startling to discover how many nooks and crannies exist within modern kitchen appliances, once you judiciously apply a screwdriver.
Cyprus is fine- it is where Ukraine domiciles its (conveniently off-shored) Oil & Gas Promotion authority which sets up SPVs co-owned with the Oligarch-Friends-of-Yanukovych to JV with Chevron in projects where no Environmental Impact Assessment was conducted and Chevron is incented to sell Ukranian production at the lowest cost to its own marketing arm in order to further enrich Chevron and Friends-of-Yanukovych (assuming a rebate or concession structure is used) and fuck over the Ukrainian debt serfs, and if the central government tries to raise taxes on the scammers, the entire obligation to invest in Ukraine goes up in smoke (just like deposits of little people who kept money in Cypriot banks)...
I'd be more concerned about the neo-nazi ukeys and their their soon to be toxic drinking and irrigation water which will put a long term damper on their plans for either a 4th Reich or revival of of the Ukrainian bread basket export road to riches...
Last time it happened cryptos went through the roof.
Cryptos going through the roof? As in like putting Hillary on an ejector seat?
I never spend a $5 note.....
i know it is not much but you would be suprised by how many you can save....
oh and don't put them in the bank.
Knew a guy who did that with $10's. Had a trunk full of 10 dollar bills. Said that was his saving plan. I guess it works...
Sounds like people who only care about themselves....come on we need to spend
You are a true patriot.
Tip money for the FEMA camp guards will go a long way too.
You think they trust FEMA guards with live ammo?
And the post office now needs hollow points
Works even better with $100 Notes.
I don't want to give the bastards any ideas, but what if they ban the $100 note under the excuse of laundering?
Using 50's and 20's despite the increased volume may be a better plan.
Using EU500 notes is best. Each one is around 700 USD
Only greedy, America-hating terrrrists hoard money.
You can hoard, just hoard in an American bank.
The "Bank of Certa, Posteurpedic and Sealy" is American. No fees.
If you like your hoard, you can keep your hoard.
Totally amazed that Cyprus wasn't burned to the ground by Sunday...
Cypus, the banksters Graceland
TPTB have a contingency plan in place for your plan B as well.....
No problem,they'll just print more.
Inside the document "Taxing Times" issued from the IMF in October of '13 it states,
Now we see, on page 49 of this document, that the implementation used in Cyprus will be used on the whole world.
Taxing Times:
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fm/2013/02/pdf/fm1302.pdf
From Bail-Ins to Bail-Outs (Goldcore Report)
In October 2011, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) published a seminal report on the bail-in regime
titled “Key Attributes of Effective Resolution Regimes for Financial Institutions”.....The scope of this planned bail-in regime for participating countries is not just limited to large domestic
banks. In addition to these “systemically significant or critical” financial institutions, the scope also
applies to two further categories of institutions, a) Global SIFIs, in other words, cross-border banks
which happen to be incorporated domestically in a country that is implementing the bail-in regime, and
b) ”Financial Market Infrastructures (FMIs)”, such as clearing houses.
The inclusion of Financial Market Infrastructures in potential bail-ins is in itself a major departure.
The FSB defines these market infrastructures to include multilateral securities and derivatives clearing
and settlement systems, and a whole host of exchange and transaction systems, such as payment
systems, central securities depositories, and trade depositories. This would mean that an unsecured
creditor claim to, for example, a clearing house institution, or to a stock exchange, could in theory be
affected if such an institution needed to be bailed-in.
As Paul Tucker phrased it at the IADI conference:
“resolution isn’t just about banks, and so we are planning to elaborate on how the Key Attributes should
be applied to, for example, central counterparties, insurers, and the client assets held by prime brokers,
custodians and others.”
The inclusion of Financial Market Infrastructures means that large parts of the global financial system is
susceptible to bail-in and could potentially be bailed-in.
http://info.goldcore.com/the-era-of-bondholder-bailouts-is-ending-and-th...
http://info.goldcore.com/protecting-your-savings-in-the-coming-bail-in-e...
Deposit confiscation happens all the time through inflation. Cyprus was just frontrunning.
When i save my $5 notes....my goal is to collect 50 of them....Once that is done I change them at the bank and turn them into 5 $50 notes.....everytime i get back from the bank I start again......pretty soon you have enough for any problems....
I save some bucks every week. When I get a new paycheck I go out and buy some gold. Pretty soon I have enough for many problems.
You know I don't trust government paper, having seen so much of my parents' savings disappeared through inflation in the last 30 years, oh no.
I just don't get people who have most all of their savings on bank accounts, it's like letting thiefs managing you wallet. How can that be?
What is this Cyprus concept of paying for stuff out of "savings"?
REAL Mericans pay for things with credit cards.
No wonder Cyprus doesn't run the world.
As far as I can tell, the lesson most US citizens have drawn from Cyprus is 'I'm so glad I don't live in Cyprus, and that MY money is safe'.
I asked about you the other day. I hadn't seen you in a while. Hope all is well. Miss your posts.
Thanks, I'm fine, just been busy lately.
good
AH - Yeah and BTW, where the fuck is Cypress anyway? Isn't it a continent?
No, stupid, Cyprus was part of the Ukraine until Russia invaded. Miley was smart to get out.
In USA not many people HAVE money in the bank. Confiscating money may not work the same as Simon Black says. He and his caviar wishes and champagne dreams have spent too many a day in Chile to know what's happening on the ground here. No dinero.
If the money is not in the banks they will find where it is and confiscate it there. I don't think the shadow economy is that big in US, the government knows a lot about people and people are not afraid of this, you know, if you did nothing bad you have nothing to hide, they say..
"Confiscation" takes on many forms, as libertarians/Libertarians know: Taxation, Licenses, Fees, Permits, Memberships, Tolls...
Then there is the more subtle kind that many Sheeple flock to: Stocks, Mutual Funds, Derivatives. Inside and outside 401k, IRA, and Roth IRA programs.
Still subtler forms of Confiscation include: Using up your Savings (bank, 401k, IRA) to cover Unemployment, Sick/Health Care, Education, Elder Care.
(Unless you're part of the Top 5%, you're leaving this earth with Jack Shit to your name. It ALL gets clawed back, bled out, and sucked out. Cause you're Sheeple to TPTB. The Torah doesn't say so, but the Talmud does and most of these blood-suckers adhere to the mystic/secret parts of the Talmud, not the Books of Moses or the NT.)
My advice is to keep only in US banks what you need to, to live a 'normal' life, and keep the rest in a variety of places -- inside and outside the US. Given that you undoubtedly earned it legally and already paid Income Tax on it, does it really matter where you keep your Currency (that isn't earning Income -- which you'd undoubtedbly also declare if it earned an Income)? To my knowledge, there is no law against storing such (legal, idle) money/currency in a myriad of places. Otherwise, go to... www.BetterCallSaul.com
FYI, Simon's biz model caters to people with >5-figure liquid assets (Cash!) to invest. If you're not in that demographic, don't worry about it: Go back to grazing, cause you're on their pasture (as TPTB see it).
I have good news. As surely as you can meet salvation upon your death the earthly wealth of TPTB will be shorn from them upon theirs'.
I think we are missing the big picture of what happened in Cyprus. In a nutshell this is what is happening in the world: The European south had too much debt. They were attacked at their debt and forced into banker/EU servitude.
Cyprus had a banking system too large for its size. Their banking system was attacked and they were forced under banker/EU.
Several other countries like Switzerland have strict privacy regulations and these regulations have in turn enabled them to accumulate capital. They are being attacked there.
Ukraine/Syria/Lybia had a lot of dissent against a demonstrably corrupt government and two ethnically different populations. Revolutions were instigated and then highjacked. They were attacked there.
There is a war going on here, waged against sovereign states, but this time it is done through the banks. I don't know who is behind it(I have a few ideas), but it is happening globally.
The US could certainly be attacked similarly and is certainly setting it self up for a similar attack. The question is to what end? Tying the US to some globalist agenda? One world government? I really don't know.
But one conclusion I have drawn from all this is that all these international organizations like the UN, IMF, OECD, BIS,EU and what have you, should be disbanded, investigated very thoroughly for supporting such actions.
Re: But one conclusion I have drawn from all this is that all these international organizations like the UN, IMF, OECD, BIS,EU and what have you, should be disbanded, investigated very thoroughly for supporting such actions.
Good idea, but the smart-n-savvy people increase their skim by creating large organizations. There's no way to dismantle large organizations because all the smartest-n-savviest people are benefiting from them. So, who is left to ask to dismantle them: the dumb-n-clueless? Naa, can't happen.
It's exactly the same with dismantling the various Big-Gov scams in the US. Everybody loves the Big-Gov scam they are living off of, and the smart-n-savvy people spent generations creating all these scams for their own benefit.
We've got the only system of government possible, world-wide.
It's just as likely that it was an US/EU operation to steal Russian money, an attack on Russia.
Millions of Americans don't have a plan A much less a plan B. Pay check to pay check and zero savings. That doesn't stop them from having cable, $200.00 sneakers, newest cell phones and a new ride. The how much a month club and the free shit army roll on.
Plan C: Invest in lots of precious metals (5.56 x 45, 9mm, ect, ect), lots of hookers, and lots of blow. I call in my Charlie Sheen plan.
Cyprus Ukraine bitches
<=== I just checked my account balance
<=== i did not check my account balance
where do I click if I checked my armored safe
It's a lot of work to go out in the woods, lift up that big rock and dig up my 'account'............
Easier to gaze out over the lake to where the canoe got tippy.
Go to a bank and try to withdraw a large sum of money. You'll almost certainly have to deal with the branch manager who'll be in your face about how you can't be withdrawing that kind of money from them.
Just remember, a depositor is doublespeak for "unsecured creditor".
True, so go to your bank every week or two and atke out $2000 - $3000. I have never been refused that. And take some of those FIAT$ and buy gold. And ammo.
Repeat until nightmares go away.
If you have a million dollar mortgage for a home that’s worth $250,000 and there's a money printing machine in the basement, you will do fine.
All those juicy 401(k) accounts. *drool*. Hey come on the tards are patriots. They will happy accept U.S. Treasuries because they are backed up by the full faith and credit of the United States criminal war mongering government, right?
Waa hahaha. Yes fools and their money are easily and quickly parted. It's gonna be fun to watch it happen.
They have to do that before the market crashes in order to maximize the value. Too bad that would have been a great timing instrument lol.
Sunday, April 17th, 2011
"Wake up all of you – now. Look around you and see for yourselves. Stop trying to imply that the world is simply in the throes of a depression, caused by a slump in the economy, because this is not true. These people will now control each of you through a global currency and your country’s indebtedness. No country will escape their clutches. Please heed My Word. Your money will be worthless."
http://www.thewarningsecondcoming.com/new-world-order-plan-to-control-yo...
Im not worried, there is nothing in my bank account to take anyway
As much as I loved living in Cyprus this is what ended it all for me. Luckily I only had about 900 euros in the bank and I was able to get it all out after a week of withdrawls but my heart goes out to the thousands of ordinary people who lost billions of euros in savings because of this fiasco. I was praying they would riot and burn the banks/government buildings down to let them know that they would not stand for the "bail in" but they did nothing and now the rest of us may find out what it's like to lose our life's savings to bail out bankers and their ilk. We are all sheep no matter where we live and now THEY know it.
http://cyprus-mail.com/2014/03/16/days-in-the-twilight-zone/
http://cyprus-mail.com/2014/03/16/it-wasnt-just-money-we-lost/
I remember back in the cold war days when I was a boy back in the late '50's.The Canadian Government actually recommended to people in Toronto that in case of nuclear war that everybody should have a wine or beer cellar.My Dad didn't have much money so he closed in an area underneath the basement stairs and put in the beer making system.I loved sweeping off the heavy foam and tasting it.The only difference today is that I go downstairs now and sit underneath the stairs admiring my gold and silver while sitting there smoking a joint of BC Big Bud just in case of monetary meltdown.
haha, not going to happen in USA, people are so much indebted by overdraft CC, they should pray the system collapses so they can dodge repayment.
Like Navy also said, I was hoping that the Cypriots would understand what was really happening and rise up in massive revolt. These are the incremental machinations of our masters. Now, our leaders know the temperment of their sheep and can test this same process elsewhere. They've discussed bail ins for a while now and its only a matter of time before they test it elsewhere. Argh!!!