Cyprus Bankrupt?

[browneyedgirl]

I have seen this story on the news the past couple of days and it seemed very tragic. It seems the government is planning on taking people's pensions to pay down the country's debt. It kinda scares me, too. If the government can do such a thing in Cyprus what's to stop the government from seizing pensions in other countries as well?

[miditek]

Ask Vomit-boy. He'll blame Señor Bush and the Joos.

[NeverendingAbyss]

[Damien Thorn]

I have seen this story on the news the past couple of days and it seemed very tragic. It seems the government is planning on taking people's pensions to pay down the country's debt. It kinda scares me, too. If the government can do such a thing in Cyprus what's to stop the government from seizing pensions in other countries as well?

Nothing. Governments can tax the populace relentlessly and whenever they see fit. Furthermore, any national government has a licence to kill (law enforcement and the army), steal (taxation) and counterfeit (central banking and the resultant fractional reserve banking system). This is a bit of a caricature of course, but you get the picture.

Cheerio,

Damien

[NeonVomit]

So, I'm in Cyprus for holiday.

Everything is fine, there's no drama. People are calm and going about their daily business again. The world's media were circling like vultures, and seemed to want to see a breakdown of society and people setting fire to things in the streets, but it was kind of funny on Thursday morning where outside some banks there were more journalists than people. We're not like the Greeks, we understand that it's pretty stupid to set fire to your own town.

Obviously it was a bad situation we got ourselves in, but I place most of the blame on the previous government who were a bunch of incompetant retards who KNEW this was going to happen and did nothing, and the current government who are a bunch of moneygrabbing bastards (fun fact: they wanted to use the national pension fund to meet the Troika's demands, until Merkel told them they were insane... so public employees who are now angry at the Germans will have her to thank that they will even get a pension...)

People here can rant on about the Germans and Belgians as much as they like, but I totally understand their actions and to be honest, everyone with more than 5 braincells could see this coming. I'm not worried about the big Russian depositors, they'll get their money back anyway, I'm worried about the small businesses which will go under due to losing so much capital.

We have ourselves to blame for this mess more than anyone else.

But whatever happens, we can pull through. We've survived far worse as a country and the way we're reacting, apart from a few poster-waving idiots, is very mature and calm. People are remembering how important it is to give mutual support - there aren't many of us - and everyone is being more polite and considerate to each other. I hope it stays like this.

[JensJohansson]

until Merkel told them they were insane... so public employees who are now angry at the Germans will have her to thank that they will even get a pension...)

Here's some advice to the world..... it applies also to my own experience.. and any context, really. When the Germans tell you you are doing something insane.... listen carefully. Very carefully.

[stratoplayer]

until Merkel told them they were insane... so public employees who are now angry at the Germans will have her to thank that they will even get a pension...)

Here's some advice to the world..... it applies also to my own experience.. and any context, really. When the Germans tell you you are doing something insane.... listen carefully. Very carefully.

Sounds like Papa Jorg saved your ass a couple of times then.

[miditek]

until Merkel told them they were insane... so public employees who are now angry at the Germans will have her to thank that they will even get a pension...)

Here's some advice to the world..... it applies also to my own experience.. and any context, really. When the Germans tell you you are doing something insane.... listen carefully. Very carefully.

The Germans don't like disobedience.

[NeonVomit]

until Merkel told them they were insane... so public employees who are now angry at the Germans will have her to thank that they will even get a pension...)

Here's some advice to the world..... it applies also to my own experience.. and any context, really. When the Germans tell you you are doing something insane.... listen carefully. Very carefully.

I'll go ahead and second that!

Also, lots of filth has started bubbling to the surface. Politicians getting loans written off, rich people making suspicious transactions... the people in Cyprus are pretty pissed off and want heads to roll. Maybe this time we'll actually take out the trash as opposed to pretending everything is ok (kind of impossible now). The ruling class is a cesspit, and the pretence of it being anything else has finally crumbled.

As an additional bonus, the president's son-in-law has been making hilariously insensitive and stupid tweets about the matter, and I think people want to find him and sell him into slavery, so hopefully that will happen because he's an entitled little shit.

[RazielSR]

I think Jens is really let's say "biased" this time

[miditek]

Germany says confident France will meet deficit obligations

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/ ... AH20130405

"(Reuters) - Germany is confident France will stick to European Union rules on targets to cut its public deficit, a German finance ministry spokesman said on Friday, a day after Paris urged Berlin to grant it more time to hit the goal.

"There are rules in the EU that apply for all. It's mostly down to the EU Commission to evaluate how to proceed further. Then the members of the EU council will look at it," said Martin Kotthaus, spokesman for Germany's finance ministry.

"We have full confidence that France will fulfill its treaty obligations."

France has acknowledged it will miss a 2013 goal of bringing its deficit down to 3 percent of output and wants its EU partners - notably Germany, the euro zone's largest economy - to give it another year to meet the target."

Is it possible that Bundeskanzlerin Merkel is being distracted by bigger fish to fry?