Cyprus surprise - Cypriot depositors to take a 'haircut'

Graham_Devon

Cypriot banks are now closed until Thursday.

Complete and utter sham. How are people supposed to access their money or pay bills?

Surely they can't just leave people with nothing?

wotsthat

Graham_Devon wrote: »

This option was not taken in Greece, Ireland or Spain. Therefore, there are other options, all with their own individual issues.

Greece and Ireland got to the bailout party first and negotiated better deals. Spain's apparently to big to fail.

Cyprus is late and relatively insignificant.

They're between the proverbial rock and hard place. Banks are staying closed until Thursday now as the Cypriot government can't quite decide which foot to shoot themselves in.

The Cypriot central bank has announced that the country's banks will stay closed until later this week as fears mount of a bank run.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business/market_data/overview/default.stm

Graham_Devon

Still standing behind it all wotsthat?

grizzly1911

wotsthat wrote: »

Greece and Ireland got to the bailout party first and negotiated better deals. Spain's apparently to big to fail.

Cyprus is late and relatively insignificant.

They're between the proverbial rock and hard place. Banks are staying closed until Thursday now as the Cypriot government can't quite decide which foot to shoot themselves in.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business/market_data/overview/default.stm

Any news on Bank runs in the PIIGS?

dryhat

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Cypriot banks are now closed until Thursday.

Complete and utter sham. How are people supposed to access their money or pay bills?

Surely they can't just leave people with nothing?

Don't be suckered into thinking that we need the banks to be propped up and if we don't prop them up by giving them everything they ask for our economy will fall apart.

It won't.

The economy is about people and people will find a way to get by.

Yes it might be tough, but they'll come out better for it.

wotsthat

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Still standing behind it all wotsthat?

I wasn't sure I was standing behind anything to be honest. If I was a Cypriot depositor I'd be spitting feathers looking for someone else to blame but that's just human nature. Very much looking forward to seeing how this plays out - may well influence the UK's policy on the urgency/ or not of tackling the deficit and government overspending.

For all my moaning about British governments I'm certainly glad that, by comparison, we've been blessed with a few hundred years of better governance. I'm glad Gordon Brown put his foot down about the UK joining the Euro too.

The_White_Horse

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

So you'd prefer savers were completely wiped out than their government imposes a 7% to 10% one-off tax.

Interesting.

it sets a precedent that it is ok to steal from the people. I would rather the banks went bust, businesses and investors lose out, and the Govt honors the bank guarantee on savings - and if they can't afford to, then the ECB should step in and do it for them.

ILW

The_White_Horse wrote: »

it sets a precedent that it is ok to steal from the people. I would rather the banks went bust, businesses and investors lose out, and the Govt honors the bank guarantee on savings - and if they can't afford to, then the ECB should step in and do it for them.

That is the way it is supposed to work.
It has now been decided that savers are the ones that caused all the problems and they need to be punished though.

The_White_Horse

it's a joke. now the banks are shut until thursday. the people can starve in the streets, the EU doesn't care. as long as the corrupt inept hateful junta keeps rolling.

antrobus

grizzly1911 wrote: »

Thanks for clarifying the 8X bit, I was driving at the time....

8X is prudent. Northern Rock was over 50X.

grizzly1911 wrote: »

...Makes the second point even more key - yes the EU should have made them get their banking in order or have stopped them from doing it full stop. No doubt the EU was happy for the profits of all that gambling to used to prop up the economy....

Well, if the EU (or ECB whatever) started making rules about the size of a nation's banking sector in relation to its economy, then they might never let us into the Euro. I don't know (off hand) what the comparative figure for the UK would be but, for example, just RBS on it's little own had assets of about £2,000 billion pre-crash; so that's about 1.3 times GDP right there.

grizzly1911 wrote: »

...If it they were trading at up to that the level before they joined the EU they should never have been allowed in.

There is a long list of countries that should never have been allowed into the Euro.:)