Cyprus
is a beta test. The banksters are trying to commit bank robbery in
broad daylight, and they are eager to see if the rest of the world will
let them get away with it. Cyprus was probably chosen because it is
very small (therefore nobody will care too much about it) and because
there is a lot of foreign (i.e. Russian) money parked there.The IMF and the EU could have easily bailed out Cyprus without any trouble whatsoever, but they purposely decided not to do that. Instead, they decided that this would be a great time to test the idea of a "wealth tax". The government of Cyprus was given two options by the IMF and the EU - either they could confiscate money from private bank accounts or they could leave the eurozone. Apparently this was presented as a "take it or leave it" proposition, and many are using the world "blackmail" to describe what has happened. Sadly, this decision is going to set a very ominous precedent for the future and it is going to have ripple effects far beyond Cyprus.
After the banksters steal money from bank accounts in Cyprus they will start doing it everywhere. If this "bank robbery" goes well, it will only be a matter of time before depositors in nations such as Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal are asked to take "haircuts" as well. And what will happen one day when the U.S. financial system collapses? Will U.S. bank accounts also be hit with a "one time" wealth tax? That is very frightening to think about. (Read More....)
When
you get into too much debt, eventually really bad things start to
happen. This is a very painful lesson that southern Europe is learning
right now, and it is a lesson that the United States will soon learn as
well. It simply is not possible to live way beyond your means forever.
You can do it for a while though, and politicians in the U.S. and in
Europe keep trying to kick the can down the road and extend the party,
but the truth is that debt is a very cruel master and at some point it
inevitably catches up with you. And when it catches up with you, the
results can be absolutely devastating. Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal all tried to just slow down the rate at which their government debts were increasing, and look at what happened to their economies. In each case, GDP is shrinking, unemployment is skyrocketing, credit is freezing up and manufacturing is declining. And you know what? None of those countries has even gotten close to a balanced budget yet. They are all still going into even more debt. Just imagine what would happen if they actually tried to only spend the money that they brought in? (Read More....)
