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Should you take your money out of banks?
IzzyFreedman
Posts: 79 Forumite
For fear of having our money Cyrused?
The telegraph seems to think it could happen here in old Blighty.
telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/cyprus/9961492
"The real mistake over the Cyprus bail-out would be to think it can’t happen here in Britain
The financial omens that led to the banking crisis in Cyprus are only too familiar
Couldn’t happen to us, could it? After all, Britain is nothing like Cyprus. Cyprus is a small island, far from the “action”, with contented natives who prefer not to notice as more and more of their wealth is bought up by oligarchically rich foreigners. Our banks don’t cripple themselves with out-of-control lending to those natives, presumably on the back of all those foreign investments. Oh.
The more I analogised, the more the only substantial difference I could see between Cyprus and Britain was the source of my ancient envy: the sun shines there, while it rarely does here.
Swathes of central London have a depopulated air, because its luxury apartments and vast villas exist, increasingly, to house the peripatetic Russians and Arabs who need somewhere to hang out while they negotiate their ownership of football clubs and department stores. (“Peripatetic”, by the way, from peripatos, the covered walkway where Aristotle would give his lectures.)
And it’s good that they do so: England isn’t only for the English, and Cyprus isn’t only (ask my Turkish friends) for the Greek Cypriots. Open economies are better than closed ones (ask my Turkish friends, again, about why they would like to join the EU).
But the price of that openness is that “little people” – those of us who are as geographically constrained as we are financially bound; those of us who would lose our homes if we lost our income and couldn’t find another job, and whose lives can be mapped in the handful of streets where we spend the major part of our existence – feel at greater risk of sudden catastrophe (another Greek word) that seems to arrive at the whim of an infantile, vengeful god. It no longer feels unimaginable that we could wake up one day, and find our interconnected banking system had hit another glitch, cutting us off from “our” money.
As the European Commission announced on Thursday: “In certain circumstances, the stability of financial markets and the banking system in Cyprus constitutes a matter of overriding public interest and public policy justifying the imposition of temporary restrictions on capital movements.” In other words, a ban on cheques and a limit of 300 euros a day on withdrawals."
The telegraph seems to think it could happen here in old Blighty.
telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/cyprus/9961492
"The real mistake over the Cyprus bail-out would be to think it can’t happen here in Britain
The financial omens that led to the banking crisis in Cyprus are only too familiar
Couldn’t happen to us, could it? After all, Britain is nothing like Cyprus. Cyprus is a small island, far from the “action”, with contented natives who prefer not to notice as more and more of their wealth is bought up by oligarchically rich foreigners. Our banks don’t cripple themselves with out-of-control lending to those natives, presumably on the back of all those foreign investments. Oh.
The more I analogised, the more the only substantial difference I could see between Cyprus and Britain was the source of my ancient envy: the sun shines there, while it rarely does here.
Swathes of central London have a depopulated air, because its luxury apartments and vast villas exist, increasingly, to house the peripatetic Russians and Arabs who need somewhere to hang out while they negotiate their ownership of football clubs and department stores. (“Peripatetic”, by the way, from peripatos, the covered walkway where Aristotle would give his lectures.)
And it’s good that they do so: England isn’t only for the English, and Cyprus isn’t only (ask my Turkish friends) for the Greek Cypriots. Open economies are better than closed ones (ask my Turkish friends, again, about why they would like to join the EU).
But the price of that openness is that “little people” – those of us who are as geographically constrained as we are financially bound; those of us who would lose our homes if we lost our income and couldn’t find another job, and whose lives can be mapped in the handful of streets where we spend the major part of our existence – feel at greater risk of sudden catastrophe (another Greek word) that seems to arrive at the whim of an infantile, vengeful god. It no longer feels unimaginable that we could wake up one day, and find our interconnected banking system had hit another glitch, cutting us off from “our” money.
As the European Commission announced on Thursday: “In certain circumstances, the stability of financial markets and the banking system in Cyprus constitutes a matter of overriding public interest and public policy justifying the imposition of temporary restrictions on capital movements.” In other words, a ban on cheques and a limit of 300 euros a day on withdrawals."
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Comments
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Oh God, not another thread on this.......search the board for Cyprus discussions.0
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misses the main point - UK has its own currency, Cyprus doesn't0
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well, I know for a fact that not everyone is worried about it.0
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In answer to your question, simply no. Everyone takes money out of banks, leaving cash at home would cause burglaries to go through the roof. If not in a bank you risk losing all your cash.It won't happen here.
I hope this is the last thread on this!0 -
In answer to your question, simply no. Everyone takes money out of banks, leaving cash at home would cause burglaries to go through the roof. If not in a bank you risk losing all your cash.It won't happen here.
I hope this is the last thread on this!
Not true the governments can not grab your cash if you have it hidden at home. Oh and it wont happen here sounds like famous last words.0 -
IzzyFreedman wrote: »Not true the governments can not grab your cash if you have it hidden at home. .
They can - they can issue brand new notes and only exchange existing notes under certain conditions0 -
IzzyFreedman wrote: »Not true the governments can not grab your cash if you have it hidden at home. Oh and it wont happen here sounds like famous last words.
You miss the point, I'm not talking about government I'm talking about burglars, thieves, low life's.0 -
Izzy doesn't remember the old 'White Fiver' withdrawn by the BofE.0
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I'm only worried if everyone else is, and people keep making these threads...so i'm getting worried and it's all your fault.0
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