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People across Europe will react with horror to this latest development in the Eurozone crisis. This will not strengthen the case for stronger European integrati
by chestnut-tree 14y ago
People across Europe will react with horror to this latest development in the Eurozone crisis. This will not strengthen the case for stronger European integration but turn many more against it.
Notice too how the supporters of these measures attempt to frame the debate around wealthy foreign tax evaders while minimizing the plight of ordinary Cypriots.
This extract from an opinion piece in The Guardian says it all
"..the debt burden has been transferred from the banks, where it properly belongs, to households, who had no part in their lending decisions.
As part of that propaganda campaign, the focus has been on Russian oligarchs and tax evaders who have been laundering funds through Cypriot banks. In fact, among those caught in the upper savings bracket are bound to be pensioners for whom this represents their entire life savings, and others who have recently borrowed enough money to buy a modest home. But even if only oligarchs were affected, this is surely an admission of guilt by the European and international authorities, who are responsible for the global regulation of banks and co-ordinating anti-money laundering activities. Their own failure can hardly be a justification for expropriating the small savers of Cyprus."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/17/savers-horror-troika-raid-cyprus http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/17/savers-h...
- pavlov 14y agoReading British newspapers for Eurozone financial commentary is like reading Soviet Pravda for its poignant analysis of American life. The rhetoric is so thick and the motivation so obvious that it's easy to forget that there's always someone who will take it seriously.
- uvdiv 14y agoI think what most resembles Soviet-style propaganda is the public denouncement of Russian oligarchs as a pretext for collective punishment of Cypriot depositors.
- martinced 14y agoThe problem is that even when people vote nationally against Europe, their corrupted lawyers/politicians still do only what they want: the french voted against entering the eurozone. Yet their leaders decided France would enter the eurozone. That's totally un-democratic just like what's happening in Cyprus is anti-democratic. Note that this shouldn't come as a surprise: Europe is mostly socialists and socialist only believe in democracy ("social democracy") as a mean to get in power and, once in power, to act in non-democratic ways. This is precisely what's happening: non-democratic confiscation of citizens' money to fund the state (please spare me the propaganda about the banks: it's about saving the european governments). (I digress but I so wish they weren't in it, because France is f^cked: people unwilling to work more than 32 hours/week, super high sense of entitlement, uncontrollable state debt exploding and they're going to default in a few years, just like Greece). I do really hope that the U.K. massively vote to get out of the European Union when the referendum shall take place. Of course they're wagging the dog with "rich russians" and whatnots: later on they'll blame the working people (who have economies) has being responsible of all the evil in Europe. Not a single time are you going to see socialists do some introspection. Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy and France are all going to state default (Greece will indeed default again). Oh, and Cyprus shall never have a state debt of 100% of their GDP in 2020 as stated for this measure. There are way too many public servants, way too many state benefits, in all these countries for them to ever be able to repay their state debt. Socialism inevitably leads to state default and that's what we'll witness soon (we already witnessed it with Greece).