When your money is not really yours - Cyprus

[nick123]

I like all the responses. "Oh I would do this and haha I tricked them I win!"

You realize they do this with income tax too right? They are stealing your money RIGHT THIS VERY SECOND. And you are not doing one thing about it.

Our founding fathers started a war over 3-5%. Now there are people being taxed more than HALF of what they make.

[mar1t1me]

I think we'd have a reasonable excuse to execute an armed revolution.

And the government would then have the perfect excuse to use all their new toys right here at home. Armed revolution would last about 20 minutes.

And in the end, level heads prevailed......at least for the moment.

[gwb72tii]

level heads are not prevailing for the moment as demonstrations/sporadic rioting are breaking out
lines at ATM's that limit withdrawls, and now the banks are closed until Tuesday.
if I were a Cypriot, the first thing I'd do is to remove every penny from my bank account and bury it. literally. when the authorities give me access, which was supposed to be today, but is now delayed again.
and if I were a Spaniard, I'd be inclined to do do pretty much the same thing, or take my $ to Switzerland. which is now charging me to deposit $ there (actual negative interest rates).
but don't worry, the stock market is up.

[Vedubin01]

today's headlines

Cyprus Banks Opening: Guards Prepare for Battle...
€300 daily withdrawal limit...
No money allowed to leave country...
Russia to ban cash transactions over $10,000...
FABER: Not Even Gold Will Save You From What is Coming...

[mrsleeve]

but this kinda thing cant happen in the US..................................Can it ???????????????

[gwb72tii]

but this kinda thing cant happen in the US..................................Can it ???????????????

well.................

there has been more than one story about the fed's requiring, thru legislation, retirement plans to invest in treasuries only....

and, the gov't did in fact confiscate all physical gold at one point

[gwb72tii]

and step back and look at the large picture
cyprus is a small economy, really insignificant in relation to the eurozone, and look at the effect its having.
further, did anyone here know that european banks' ownership of sovereign debt is considered a no risk asset, even after greece has defaulted 3 times. infact, many of the troubles the cypriot banks find themselves in is a direct result of ownership of greek sovereign debt.

unemployment in spain is over 27% now, nearly 60% youth (18-25yrs), and spain will never pay off on its debt, ala greece. but because of a promise by the ECB to do whatever it takes to keep the euro together, spanish 10yr sovereign debt yields just over 5%. 5% !!!!!!!!! and your not going to get all your money back. this is how central banks have skewed asset pricing. risk appears contained when in fact you cannot tell by looking how the asset (debt) is priced.

but don't worry. US stocks are higher.

[mrsleeve]

well.................

there has been more than one story about the fed's requiring, thru legislation, retirement plans to invest in treasuries only....

and, the gov't did in fact confiscate all physical gold at one point

Ummm george did you forget whom you were quoting there for a sec ;)

[Q5Quint]

Interesting- my county is thinking of changing its tax allocation policy from a population based tax to a property value based tax- it would actually make the county lose about 180k and my town in particular about 2million, but make a neighboring towns revenue go up about 800k and another town about 1 mil (they are retirement and vacation home communities and have very high property values).

What does this do for most of the citizens that actually live in the most populated town not in a gated vacation community with high property values?

Well we will lose police, firefighters, roads will be worse, and some teachers will get fired. No more snow plowing equipment so all those handy vacationers coming up to go skiing will be stuck before they can make it to the hotel... of course unless the other towns make sure to plow our town too with their new revenues.

Why would people suggest this idea? Because the county folks hate the city folk and want to stick it to them for not allowing giant apartment buildings to be built in the city limits. (we have built 5000+ units in the last 5 years... what. the. fack. And by city I mean a whopping 14k people.... plus the 20k university students. 50% of the land in our county is owned by people who do not reside in our county.... its like the beach but in the mountains.

TL;DR My county is about to change its tax allocation policy to actually lose 180k a year total tax revenues and cause the town that most of the actual citizens in the county live in to lose 2 million in tax revenue and redistribute that revenue to the neighboring vacation home communities.


We have plenty of money at our current tax levels- we are just doing a shit-poor job of spending it properly due to one party wanting to 'stick it' to the other just because.... and everybody ends up losing.

Our debt-to-income per capita ratio is better than almost every other country in the world, except japan. Thinking that the government is about to 'steal more of our money' is just plain fear mongering. Like I said my county is about to lose 180k just to say 'fuck you' to my town. If the fed tried to do anything like that maybe it would make these dicks actually work together to say 'fuck you obama'.

*note: find greece and cypriss on the map.... might need the ole magnifying glass for that one.... we should just give them a big spoonfull of freedom and take all their olive oil for ourselves. 'Merica

[Wiglaf]

If the US had to resort to a money grab, they would go where the money is. And it isn't your grandma's bank account.

Anyone with extra money doesn't let it sit in the bank, it's in the stock market.
Would this even affect the average person? only in the "sorry 'bout your retirement plan" sort of way. Until the riots/revolution/etc hit at least.

And by that I mean yes, last time I checked the % of people too broke to be playing with stocks was over 40%, and the bulk of everyone else goes through a firm as retirement savings. The only "trickle down" effect we ever see is when stock markets do badly, and this would probably make our lives miserable for a while. And the whole world for that matter.

But since the 1% run the show and their money is in investments instead of savings.. yeah it'll get redirected to the banks. the only "trickle-down" we ever see is getting peed on.

in conclusion, this nation would self-destruct before that ever happened.

[mrsleeve]

^
BULL SHIT
They (the feds) Have been wanting to get into the 401k's and other retirement vehicles for decades. The Idea has been floated out there not all that long ago (2008 IIRC) to confiscate IRA's and 401ks and other tax shelter retirement strategies and "convert them" to managed accounts under the umbrella of the Social Security Admin. While taxing EVERYONE another 3% to add to their govt controlled account, that would only be paid out as an annuity, so the balance upon your death could not be passed to your heirs or if you die before you were to draw form it

There were several hearings and so on, that didnt go anywhere but I heard the idea mentioned again recently in not as many words or directly during the stink about using recess appointments to the Labor relations board being unconstitutional. I heard this bitches name again recently as well and its her plan that was highly discussed in 08

Tressa Ghilarducci's


Americans have an estimated 19T in retirement savings you dont think the feds want to find a way to get into all that??

[Wiglaf]

it gets taxed when you pull the money out.

and i do feel that stock trading is undertaxed.

[mrsleeve]

Well yeah it gets taxed when you pull it out, but thats not point of my post. My point in the feds are looking to get the mitts of the govt on ALL OF IT

[RagtopE30]

I have found the best way to secure my financial freedom is to hide green paper in safe deposit boxes and invest heavily in E30s. So far so good.

[Kershaw]

to be fair, and speaking as a greek, the reason Mediterranean countries are in such financial straits is because no one pays their fucking taxes.

in my view, that money was justly taken in 95% of those bank accounts.