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Oh, what do you think can be done about? It's the German government pushing this because Merkal is up for reelection next year and having German taxpayers bailout troubled Southern European countries is very unpopular in Germany. Thus she's trying to force the locals to come up with ways to help pay for their own bailouts so that Germany doesn't have to pay so much. Yes, this is a boneheaded move but remember the government of Cyprus could just refuse and default, thus getting kicked out of the Euro Zone, suffering all the consequences that would entail.
The basic problem is still that private banks lend carelessly and now they need to be bailed out by taxpayers. THAT is what caused all this. Where Cyprus messed up is instead of letting the private banks go bust they bailed them out via a nationalization which made the debts of those private banks public debt. That is how the national government got into financial trouble; they were trying to prop up private banks. They should have followed the Iceland model of just letting those banks go bust.
Honestly..go do some reading.
Germany pushed the bailout on Greece because Greece had some big military contracts to buy equipment from Germany. Do you think Greece "canceled" that contract or used IMF bailout money to hand back to Germany for military equipment ? And that was to the tune of $5 billion USD.
Oh, what do you think can be done about? It's the German government pushing this because Merkal is up for reelection next year and having German taxpayers bailout troubled Southern European countries is very unpopular in Germany. Thus she's trying to force the locals to come up with ways to help pay for their own bailouts so that Germany doesn't have to pay so much. Yes, this is a boneheaded move but remember the government of Cyprus could just refuse and default, thus getting kicked out of the Euro Zone, suffering all the consequences that would entail.
The basic problem is still that private banks lend carelessly and now they need to be bailed out by taxpayers. THAT is what caused all this. Where Cyprus messed up is instead of letting the private banks go bust they bailed them out via a nationalization which made the debts of those private banks public debt. That is how the national government got into financial trouble; they were trying to prop up private banks. They should have followed the Iceland model of just letting those banks go bust.
I wonder if they decided to simply follow our model.
I know there are people, generally conservatives, who consider all forms of taxation to be theft. I consider this position so ridiculous as not to be worthy of comment or discussion.
Nevertheless, this tax, even assuming it is created in conformity with the laws of Cyprus, seems troubling in a number of respects.
First, it's arbitrary: it hits people who happen to have their assets in bank accounts while ignoring people who are equally able to pay taxes who have their assets in other forms.
Second, it has the appearance of being retroactive, since it didn't exist at the time people made their decisions of how to invest their money, and how much to save instead of spending.
Third, it seems to be counterproductive in the long term, as it is likely to discourage people from saving at all and from using banks.
I recognize they have a debt crisis, and I realize that they think that a substantial share of bank savings are owned by money launderers from other countries (Russia), but this still doesn't seem like a good thing.
No, Italy is not doing the same. Where do you come up with this stuff? How about a link to back up your mad ravings?
Kramer relies on surveys of the European Central Bank. Net financial assets of the Italians therefore amounts to 173 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). This was significantly more than the net financial assets of the Germans, which corresponds to 124 percent of GDP, said Kramer Handelsblatt Online. "So it would make sense, in Italy a one-time property tax levy," suggested the Bank economist. "A tax rate of 15 percent on financial assets would probably be enough to push the Italian government debt to below the critical level of 100 percent of gross domestic product."
I wonder if they decided to simply follow our model.
It wasn't really possible for a tiny country like Cyprus to bailout the banks as the banks were larger than the national economy (once you count their over seas holdings especially in places like Greece which is what got the banks into trouble). It's just a tiny and poor country and the national economy basically rests upon tourism and laundering money from shady people. Their banking secrecy laws made Cyprus a popular location to stash ill gotten cash by Russian mobsters, South American drug lords, African military dictators, corrupt politicians, and American billionaire tax cheats.
Jesus Christ, dude. We're not even talking about Greece and instead we're talking about an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT COUNTRY. Sure, about half of the population of Cyprus speaks Greek (the other half speak Turkish) but it is a different country. Also, no, the EU's bailout of Greece had nothing to do with lame, nonsensical conspiracy theories about defense contractors. For the love of god just stop posting on this topic until you learn something about it.
Jesus Christ, dude. We're not even talking about Greece and instead we're talking about an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT COUNTRY. Sure, about half of the population of Cyprus speaks Greek (the other half speak Turkish) but it is a different country. Also, no, the EU's bailout of Greece had nothing to do with lame, nonsensical conspiracy theories about defense contractors. For the love of god just stop posting on this topic until you learn something about it.
Well I was replying to YOUR POST that talked about Germany and Greece.
How's about you keep up with your own posts which I even referenced.
And you spew opinions like they are fact and don't provide links.
If you follow foreign news, Germany's defense deals with EU countries is widely known.
I was talking about Germany putting conditions on CYPRUS in order for it to get a bailout. Specifically, the one time tax on bank deposits. Cyprus not Greece. I did say that private banks in Cyprus loaned lots of money to Greece, thus their current problems, but, no, I didn't talk about Germany and Greece directly.
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