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The main issue is not Cyprus. Cyprus just happens to be the nation where the confiscation is to be enacted. Cyprus is the scapegoat.The European Union, the ECB and the IMF are the villains. Cyprus is the mostly unwilling recipient. What has taken place in Cyprus is far less important than the larger issue which is a forfeiture of private property being demanded by the nations on the Continent and by an international organization headquartered in Washington D.C. That would be in America.
“The leading banker in Amsterdam is now the pastry chef in our kitchen.”
-Casablanca
In the case of the Greek default the country was told by the same organizations to retroactively change the covenants of their bond indenture. They did this. In the case of Cyprus, Europe has told this small nation to seize a portion of all of the bank accounts in the country so as to partially fund its debt. In both cases neither Greece nor Cyprus made the decisions; they were made by the European Union and forced upon the host countries by the threat of capital to be provided or not.
(AP) “Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the Eurogroup meeting of Eurozone finance ministers, has vowed that a Greek default was not an option and would be avoided even after Athens’ admission that it would miss its deficit-reduction targets raised questions about whether it would receive its next bailout loan.”
-October 3, 2011
Right up until the day it happened the President of Cyprus claimed it would never happen. Then, faced with bankruptcy, the fellow folded. I do not take a position here upon his actions, he has been in office for three weeks, but I do take a position upon the tyranny of the governmental bodies in question; they have demanded and forced the forfeiture of private property for their own betterment. I state with authority; if they can do it in Greece and then again in Cyprus they can do it anywhere and under any guise they like. They can wield the army of their pen, of their money, as an effective armament on the battlefield, to change what they like, when they like, all for the good of the State.
“Every collectivist revolution rides in on a Trojan horse of ‘emergency’. It was the tactic of Lenin, Hitler, and Mussolini. In the collectivist sweep over a dozen minor countries of Europe, it was the cry of men striving to get on horseback. And ‘emergency’ became the justification of the subsequent steps. This technique of creating emergency is the greatest achievement that demagoguery attains.”
-Herbert Hoover
Deposit Insurance at a bank, any bank in Europe, is now meaningless. A bond indenture, any clause, any paragraph, any promise or assurance; now meaningless. The notion of private property, land, cash, house; now meaningless. The European Union will take what they want as they deem it necessary and the IMF will follow along. The question has been asked, during the last few days, why the bond holders of Cyprus were not tagged along with the bank deposits. I can answer the question. Virtually all of the Cyprus sovereign debt is governed under British law and so the EU did not pursue this course.
I recall the movie, Casablanca, where the Germans stood up to sing their National Anthem and the French responded with the “Marseilles.” It is too bad that the French have forgotten how to sing this song but then, apparently, all of the nations in the EU have forgotten how to sing their own songs.
Greece came first. Lesson one and “shame on you.” Cyprus comes second and now “shame on me.” What will come next? What will you tell your partners or your shareholders when they say, “You should have known.” You will have no excuse! The Europeans will take what they want and when they want it and to have money invested there now only has one excuse; masochism. Neither you nor I have any idea of what they might do next. When a government changes an indenture retroactively as a condition of funding and then demands that private property be seized as a condition of funding then this government, the European Union, will stop at nothing, find no boundary or fence, to halt its ambitions.
When Lesson three comes, and it will, I will not be kind. I will say; “I told you so!”
