[paraclete]

I know there was a run on the ATMs . Clete is wrong about Cyprus . It is the canary in the coal mine. If the EU gets away with it there ,then the PIGS are next . and then..................(I see my 401-K threatened again)

Good morning Chicken Little. I thought you would be able to recognise a tax when you see it, there are already moves afoot to limit the impact on small balances. Cyprus has become a Russian playground so the point is you can accept a tax or you accept a sudden devaluation of currency which will have greater impact, just how much purchasing power have you lost in your own currency since the GFC began, from the other side of the big pond I can tell you it is about 20% but you wouldn't have noticed it, well maybe.

They have frozen bank accounts which tells you they are serious if a little slow and the victims don't want their balances converted into stock. It might not be be think if this applied to the PIGS but how do you get a tax on all the money hidden in the mattress. A bank tax is very inefficent but it does focus on money. I'm surprised they didn't just implement a general transaction tax

[tomder55]

Maybe they can try not plundering other people's money.

[talaniman]

It not plunder if its legal. Didn't you learn that in 2007?

[tomder55]

Guess not... you see here deposits are insured by the government... in the EU evidently deposits get plundered by the government.

[paraclete]

Tom you know I have long said all taxation is theft, but what are you going to do, allow the Greeks and the Russians to use Cyprus to launder their money without taxation? I hear taxation in Cyprus is 10% so I don't think they should winge if they have to pay another 10% after all it might be the only tax they pay. Exit another tax haven

I know as a good Republican you hate the idea of a successful tax because such ideas are catching but you should be happy at such a low rate, after all they didn't repudiate the national debt and confiscate the balances

[tomder55]

but what are you going to do, allow the Greeks and the Russians to use Cyprus to launder their money without taxation?

In my world laundering money is racketeering ;and a bank that does it is a criminal enterprise (hello HSBC) . But in my world banks are businesses that aren't above the law or 'too big to fail'... and yes , laundered funds should be seized . But what does that have to do with screwing the rest of the depositors ? The government in this case will be no different than the criminals .

Edit those Cypriotes banging on the bank doors today were not criminal depositors . The criminals are the nameless faceless bureaucrats in Brussels .

[paraclete]

i But in my world banks are businesses that aren't above the law or 'too big to fail'.....

Really? Now I remember not so long ago some US banks that were too big to fail, but you don't learn the lessons of history easily. You see Tom your world is not the best of all possible worlds, even though the propaganda you have been fed all your life tells you it is.

Yes money laundering is a criminal activity and even in this far flung land the proceeds of crime are seized, but such concepts are new to Cypress, Greece and even to the EU. Good heavens, taxation is a foreign concept in Greece, you would be right at home there.

The ordinary citizen should have nothing to fear, they will become stock holders in some very successful banks, which is more than most of us get for our tax dollar

[tomder55]

You have not read a word I've written about the banks since 2008 .You are the one who buys into the cr@p that banks are too big to fail. This move will not be isolated to Cyprus. I've been warning for months now that the US government wants to break faith with individual retirement savers. If bank accounts can be casually expropriated in Cyprus to pay for big spending governments and bailouts, there is no reason the $19 trillion in retirement accounts can't get the same treatment here. This Cyprus thing is a test case ;and the bureaucrats in Brussels and Washington (and probably Red Julia's minions too) are watching to see if they can get away with it .

[paraclete]

You have not read a word I've written about the banks since 2008 .You are the one who buys into the cr@p that banks are too big to fail.

When have I ever said that, no I think the US banks should have been allowed to fail. It would have deepened the GFC, but the auto industry should have been allowed to fail too, and AIC. The problem is Tom your economy, any economy, can really only afford one industry to fail at a time, so your sub-prime mortgage industry was allowed to fail while others were provided with a soft landing, not my ecision.

This move will not be isolated to Cyprus. I've been warning for months now that the US government wants to break faith with individual retirement savers. If bank accounts can be casually expropriated in Cyprus to pay for big spending governments and bailouts, there is no reason the $19 trillion in retirement accounts can't get the same treatment here. This Cyprus thing is a test case ;and the bureaucrats in Brussels and Washington (and probably Red Julia's minions too) are watching to see if they can get away with it .

Ok Tom, I'll conceed the possibility that such a scenario might happen.

The Little Red Fox has already confiscated dormant superannuation accounts, another nice precedent for your forward thinkers particularly since your accounts match your national debt, what an opportunity to start again with a clean slate? You see Tom we are not as slow as you to start a trend, but we know that Julia's time is short where as you have many years of BO to suffer. You have long made the mistake of thinking that I lean a long way to the left, but this is only perspective since you are standing on that lofty right ledge, where as Julia is standing on the opposite lofty left ledge and I am standing in the middle on firm ground. I'm waiting for her to fall off, Tom, just as I'm waiting for you.

In the situation of Cypress I Think it is an innovative solution to tax those who are part of the problem, The Greeks sold the banks in Cypress junk bonds and deposited their money in those Cypress banks for safety. The banks lost heavily and wanted a bailout, just like they saw your banks get, but this time the EU saw through it and called the bluff

Please remember two pennith of nothing is nothing and so is 10%

[talaniman]

We had our junk bond scandel in the 80's, Bush senior bailed out Jeb, and Jeb got his brother George, who bankrupted 7 companies and a baseball team, elected president. Now Jeb wants to be the third Bush to be president.

We have not recovered from the other two yet.

[speechlesstx]

Wondering if excon is going to follow CVS' lead...

CVS To Penalize Workers Who Don't Disclose Weight, Body Fat

One of the country's largest pharmacy chains is asking its workers to find out how fat they are and then disclose it to their insurance provider.

Not only is that company, CVS Caremark, telling workers who use its health insurance plan to have a doctor determine their height, weight, body fat, blood pressure and other health indicators. It is also asking workers to give permission to the insurer to turn over that information to a firm that provides benefits support to CVS, the Boston Herald reports.

Workers who don’t take part in the voluntary “wellness review,” paid for by CVS, will have to pay an annual $600 penalty.

Obamacare could make such practices more common. The health care reform law allows employers to levy a higher penalty against workers who don’t participate in company wellness programs. In some cases, workers could also have to pay more if they don’t meet certain health targets like appropriate body mass index.

Ya know, besides not getting to keep your doctor or insurance as promised, and surrendering private health information now, Obamacare sure sounds to me like a big bully, too. I thought liberals hated bullying. If imposing penalties if you won't surrender your health info or because you're a little fat isn't intimidating and bullying I don't know what is.

[excon]

Hello again, Steve:

Wondering if excon is going to follow CVS' lead...

No. I'm going to continue to cover my employees and NOT inject myself into their personal lives.. CVS is within their rights to do so, though.

Besides, I don't hire FAT people.

Excon

[speechlesstx]

Hello again, Steve:

No. I'm going to continue to cover my employees and NOT inject myself into their personal lives.. CVS is within their rights to do so, though.

Besides, I don't hire FAT people.

excon

So it's OK to penalize them if they refuse to surrender their personal, private health info but not OK to make them buy their own contraceptives. What a twisted liberal world...

[paraclete]

Hell

Besides, I don't hire FAT people.

excon

Up your nose with a rubber hose buddy

[excon]

Hello Steve:

If they want ME to pay for THEIR health care, then you're DAMN right I'm going to have a SAY in how they take care of the BODY that I'm paying for.

excon

[speechlesstx]

Hello Steve:

If they want ME to pay for THEIR health care, then you're DAMN right I'm gonna have a SAY in how they take care of the BODY that I'm paying for.

excon

Can I apply that principle to the contraceptive mandate?

[tomder55]

We had our junk bond scandel in the 80's, Bush senior bailed out Jeb, and Jeb got his brother George, who bankrupted 7 companies and a baseball team, elected president. Now Jeb wants to be the third Bush to be president.

We have not recovered from the other two yet.

Jeb Bush in not high on my list of Republic contenders .

[talaniman]

Caremark, and any other employers better be careful because I smell a lot of tort activity coming their way. Is a CEO a worker too?

[NeedKarma]

Can I apply that principle to the contraceptive mandate?

You mean like telling women that you hire that they are not allowed to use contraception while under your employ? Sure, go for it.

[speechlesstx]

You mean like telling women that you hire that they are not allowed to use contraception while under your employ? Sure, go for it.

Obviously the hypocrisy escapes you. You really oughtta give up trying to humiliate me, dude.