Turkey’s War In The West — Cyprus Is Now Surrounded By Drill-Ships And Warships; Cannon Ready To Fire At Europe – 150,000 People Per Month — John Helmer

Under cover of its Russian S-400 air defence batteries, and ignoring US and European sanctions, Turkey is going on the offensive at sea, surrounding Cyprus, and by land, launching a weapon against the European Union against which there is no defence: a Turkish cannon firing 150,000 people at Europe’s borders each month. They are the refugees from the wars the US and NATO launched in Iraq, Syria and Libya.

A Russian analysis entitled “Turkey will open the door to Europe for millions of refugees”, written by Vladimir Dobrinin, was published in Vzglyad (“View”) on July 24. An English translation follows below....

Dances with Bears
TURKEY’S WAR IN THE WEST — CYPRUS IS NOW SURROUNDED BY DRILL-SHIPS AND WARSHIPS; CANNON READY TO FIRE AT EUROPE – 150,000 PEOPLE PER MONTH
John Helmer

Wilbur Ross and the dopey finance capitalists

It would be so easy to beat these dopey finance capitalists at their game. So, so, easy. If I were only in charge. If only there was a leader somewhere who understood the power of his/her nation's own sovereign money and what they could do. You could bury these guys who produce...nothing.

Don Trump's new Commerce Secretary, octogenarian loser hedge fund elf, Wilbur Ross, spoke these "pearls" of wisdom today.

"Brexit is a God-given opportunity to steal business away from UK."

"I recommend that Cyprus should adopt and immediately announce even more liberal financial service policies than it already has so that it can try to take advantage of the inevitable relocations that will occur during the period of confusion,"

Wilbur Ross is an elf

So, our new Commerce Secretary is basically advocating for other countries (maybe for us, too) to zealously deregulate finance and give the banksters in Cyprus free reign to commit massive fraud like the banksters in the City of London and Wall Street did, which nearly destroyed the entire global economy.

This is great business, I guess, to him.

Finance creates nothing. NOTHING. It produces nothing. It's a tax on everyone that flows to a small few like the elf, Ross.

Ross should be promoting investment in infrastructure, health care, education, basic science and research, alternative energy, but instead, he's saying, steal London's financial casino's. What a dope.

If only I were in charge. I'd bury these guys. BURY THEM.

Finance needs to be shrunk down to practically nothing. Wilbur Ross, as I said before was a terrible pick for Commerce and he's proving it with these idiotic comments, but I am sure Trump thinks it's brilliant.

Actually, upon hearing Ross's comments the Brits ought to be laughing and cheering and saying, Here! Take the City for all we care, but, no, I am sure they are shaking in their misguided boots at what's about to be "stolen" away from them by Cyprus and Dublin.

Lol!!

Dimitri Konstantakopoulos — Nuland in Nicosia – towards “regime change” in Cyprus?

Many readers may think that what is happening in Cyprus, a small member-state of EU in Eastern Mediterranean, is of rather marginal importance. This is what mainstream media are implying by their (non) reporting on the real parameters of the Cyprus question. But, in reality the opposite is true. Cyprus, in spite of its magnitude, is too important to speak much of it!

What what will happen in Cyprus during the coming months may have huge consequences for the direction both the European and the Middle Eastern crises will take in the near future. It may determine EU-Turkey relations and it will also deeply affect Greek politics and Russian interests in the Mediterranean.

Why all this? First because the “solution”, now prepared, of the Cyprus conflict is tantamount to no more, no less than the … abolition of the state in Cyprus, something which will set an example for all nation-states in Europe. To make a long story short, the Annan plan – along the same lines will be the next proposal for Cyprus - was giving ultimate power in the island to three foreign judges and to dozens of other “international officials”, appointed by the General Secretary of the UN personally (without even the consent of members of the Security Council). Those judges and other “international officials” would be able even to appoint their successors!

Katehon
Dimitris Konstantakopoulos: Nuland in Nicosia – towards “regime change” in Cyprus?

Dimitri Konstantakopoulos | Journalist and writer, former Secretary of the Independent Citizens Movement, former member SYRIZA’s Central Committee, current editorial board member of the international magazine Utopia Review, ex-chief of the Greek Press Agency office in Moscow, formerly served as Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou’s adviser in East-West relations and arms control.

John Helmer — NULAND TELLS CYPRUS TO CUT RUSSIAN TIES – PRESSURES ANASTASIADES TO ACCEPT NATO PLAN FOR TURKISH TROOPS IN CYPRUS

The US is intensifying the pressure on Cyprus to accept a secret NATO plan to keep Turkish forces on the island.

Victoria Nuland, the State Department official in charge of regime change in Russia and Ukraine, met for talks last week with the President of Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades, and with Turkish Cypriot figures.…

After its attack and military occupation of the north in 1974, Turkey has insisted on keeping its forces on the island as a security “guarantee”, and refuses to comply with United Nations (UN) resolutions ordering their withdrawal.

US military commanders and political leaders have never advocated Turkish withdrawal from the island, or compliance with the UN resolutions. Instead, they have recommended incorporating both parts of Cyprus into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The political and military commands in Ankara have been reluctant to accept a NATO solution for Cyprus because they object to what they regard as “dilution” of their army on the island. The Nuland plan is the latest attempt to give Ankara what it wants, and override Greek Cypriot objections.…

On April 5, just before Nuland’s arrival in Nicosia, senior Russian and Cypriot officials, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Meshkov (below, left) and the Permanent Secretary of the Cyprus Foreign Ministry, Alexandros Zenon (right), met in Moscow.
Their communique said that “during an exchange of views on the Cyprus settlement, the Russian side reiterated its commitment to the efforts made in the framework of the continuing intra-Cypriot talks under the UN aegis to promote a fair and lasting solution on the basis of the relevant UN Security Council resolutions, a solution that would meet the interests of both Cypriot communities and stem from their voluntary consent.”

As for the terms to be agreed, Moscow has added: “We oppose any attempts at imposing on the participants of the intra-Cypriot negotiations any formulas of settlement, artificial negotiating schedules, and arbitration.”…

[Cyprus President] Anastasiades has been forced into publicly defending himself and his associates from widely published, widely believed allegations of corruptly protecting their wealth when, in return for the European Union’s bailout of the Cyprus banks, Anastasiades agreed to the “haircut” – the confiscation of Cypriot depositors’ bank accounts on March 25, 2013. Anastasiades has also been linked to extortion by a former deputy attorney-general now on trial for abuse of power; and to privatization scams.… 

Keeping up with the intrigue.

Dances with Bears
NULAND TELLS CYPRUS TO CUT RUSSIAN TIES – PRESSURES ANASTASIADES TO ACCEPT NATO PLAN FOR TURKISH TROOPS IN CYPRUS
John Helmer

John Helmer — Cyprus, Russian Fraud Investigations Close In On Leonid Lebedev – Us Banks Accused Of Money Laundering

Documents uncovered in Cyprus reveal that three banks based in New York – Citibank, Bank of America, and HSBC – were engaged by Imperium Services Ltd., a Cyprus trustee company, to receive Lebedev’s cash and open deposits for a Cyprus entity he called North Sintez International Trust. At opening, Citi (below, left) was holding $98.4 million of Lebedev’s money; Bank of America (right), $17.9 million; and HSBC of New York, $33.4 million.

In their originating transactions with North Sintez, and in their subsequent payments of interest on these funds, the American banks appear to have violated US money-laundering laws and regulations. The banks also appear to have failed to uncover evidence that Lebedev was obliged to report his income to the US Internal Revenue Service. According to unverified sources, the 59-year old Lebedev, who emigrated from Russia to the US in his twenties, and lived there in the 1980s and early 1990s, held a US passport between September 2001 and September 2011.…

Pretty sordid all around. What else is new at the top.

Dances with Bears
Cyprus, Russian Fraud Investigations Close In On Leonid Lebedev – Us Banks Accused Of Money Laundering
John Helmer

Former Finance Minister of Cyprus on the Greek crisis — Branko Milanovic interviews Michael Sarris

While on vacations in Greece, I had a chance today (Sunday 28 June) to have a long discussion with Michael Sarris who was Cypriot Minister of Finance between 2005 and 2008 when the Euro was introduced in Cyprus and then again Minister of Finance during the March 2013 crisis when Cyprus faced negotiations with “the institutions” very similar to those faced today by Greece. Very few people in the world have as informed and first-hand knowledge of the situation as Michael Sarris does. Here are my questions and his answers.

Global Inequality
Former Finance Minister of Cyprus on the Greek crisis
Branko Milanovic | Visiting Presidential Professor at City University of New York Graduate Center and senior scholar at the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), and formerly lead economist in the World Bank's research department and senior associate at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Bill Mitchell — Latest military expenditure data reveals the hypocrisy of austerity

Austerity applies to everything but military spending. EZ nations are required to keep their fiscal deficits to within 3% of GDP, while NATO policy requires spending 2% of GDP on the military. Austerity is directed at social spending instead.

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
Latest military expenditure data reveals the hypocrisy of austerity
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

"Bail-in" is the new buzz word in banking. This means you as a depositor.

According to an International Monetary Fund paper titled “From Bail-out to Bail-in: Mandatory Debt Restructuring of Systemic Financial Institutions”:

[B]ail-in . . . is a statutory power of a resolution authority (as opposed to contractual arrangements, such as contingent capital requirements) to restructure the liabilities of a distressed financial institution by writing down its unsecured debt and/or converting it to equity. The statutory bail-in power is intended to achieve a prompt recapitalization and restructuring of the distressed institution.

The language is a bit obscure, but here are some points to note: 

• What was formerly called a “bankruptcy” is now a “resolution proceeding.” The bank’s insolvency is “resolved” by the neat trick of turning its liabilities into capital. Insolvent TBTF banks are to be “promptly recapitalized” with their “unsecured debt” so that they can go on with business as usual. 
• “Unsecured debt” includes deposits, the largest class of unsecured debt of any bank. The insolvent bank is to be made solvent by turning our money into their equity – bank stock that could become worthless on the market or be tied up for years in resolution proceedings. 
• The power is statutory. Cyprus-style confiscations are to become the law.
• Rather than having their assets sold off and closing their doors, as happens to lesser bankrupt businesses in a capitalist economy, “zombie” banks are to be kept alive and open for business at all costs – and the costs are again to be to borne by us.

Wait. It gets worse.

The Latest Twist: Putting Pensions at Risk with “Bail-Inable” Bonds

Web of Debt
New G20 Rules: Cyprus-style Bail-ins to Hit Depositors AND Pensioners
Ellen Brown

Also

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
The Cyprus confiscation becomes the model for bank insolvency
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at the Charles Darwin University, Northern Territory, Australia

Bill McBride — NY Times: Following Cyprus bank closings, Other Tax Havens step in

Particularly successful at luring Russians, Cyprus has built up a large infrastructure of lawyers, accountants and other professionals schooled in the arts of tax avoidance. Its corporate registry now has 320,000 registered companies, a staggering number for a country with only 860,000 people.

Calculated Risk
NY Times: Following Cyprus bank closings, Other Tax Havens step in
Bill McBride

Barclays — The Seven Broken Taboos Of The Cyprus Deal

The euro’s core founding principles, based on the Maastricht Treaty’s “irrevocable” fixing of currency rates, and of the free movement of capital, have been violated. The euro will never be the same again; its preservation now depends urgently upon economic recovery. Without the delivery of economic growth, unemployment will rise to yet higher post-war record levels, and the widespread and growing disillusionment felt by EU citizens towards their economic regime will threaten to spill over into more explicit questioning of the euro’s suitability.

Zero Hedge
The Seven Broken Taboos Of The Cyprus Deal
Barclays

Just a matter of time now for the euro? Will Cyprus turn out to be Creditanstalt redux? 

Zero Hedge — Cyprus Parliament President Says "No Future" Under Troika, Calls For "Iceland" Solution

Cyprus to leave EZ?

There is no other alternative but to free Cyprus from the bonds of the troika and the memorandum, House of Representatives President Yiannakis Omirou has said. Omirou also expressed his conviction that no Attorney General would dream of not following through with the results of an investigation led by an independent committee to apportion blame on those responsible for bringing the country’s economy and banking sector near collapse.

Zero Hedge
Cyprus Parliament President Says "No Future" Under Troika, Calls For "Iceland" Solution
Submitted by Tyler Durden

Randy Wray — What Went Wrong in Cyprus: an MMT Perspective

Some readers have encouraged me to provide an MMT perspective on Cyprus. First a caveat: I have no special expertise on that country. However, as all of you know, MMTers have been warning about the fate of Euroland for almost two decades. As you watch one after another of those dominoes fall, you cannot help thinking about theWild Africa documentaries you watched on TV when you were a kid.

Remember when the pair of lions sneak up on a herd of wildebeest? The lions pounce on the weakest one. The others are startled, watch the lions munching on their brother for a minute or two, and then go right back to grazing. “Better him than me”, they appear to think. And so goes Iceland, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and Cyprus. The Dutch and French and Germans just keep grazing that grass.

Ok so what went wrong in Cyprus.

Economonitor — Great Leap Forward
What Went Wrong in Cyprus: an MMT Perspective
L. Randall Wray | Professor of Economics, UMKC

Al Jazeera — Cyprus clinch last-minute bailout deal

EU finance ministers have agreed a deal on a bailout for island nation to prevent its banking system collapsing.

No general deposit levy.

Al Jazeera
Cyprus clinch last-minute bailout deal

The Raw Story

Cyprus strikes deal to close second-largest bank and tax deposits over €100,000

Ian Traynor, The Guardian

A meeting of eurozone finance ministers which started six hours late reached an agreement in the early hours of Monday morning to finalise the fine print of the deal. Savers with deposits of less than €100,000 (£85,000) would be spared, but it was thought there would be heavy losses inflicted on the deposits of the wealthy.

Laiki, or Cyprus Popular Bank, is to be closed, with its good assets transferred to Bank of Cyprus, the country’s biggest bank, where savers would suffer big losses in return for equity shares. Those with more than €100,000 in Laiki would also be hit hard.

Negotiations got under way amid a hardening of the stance by the IMF and Germany, which insisted that depositors must take the hit for bailing out the eurozone’s latest crisis economy. 

There were signs of panic in Cyprus as a €100 limit was imposed on ATM withdrawals, with more stringent capital controls to follow if the deal is finalised.

Frances Coppola — The broken Euro

Imagine you live in a prosperous country, with a lovely climate, beautiful beaches, blue seas. But there's something funny about this country. It doesn't have a functioning banking system....

The European Union was founded on "four freedoms": free movement of goods, free movement of services, free movement of capital and free movement of people. Capital controls are direct prevention of free movement of capital. In fact it is worse than that, because strict capital controls also severely curtail free movement of goods and services and free movement of people - the other founding principles....

The Troika has already demonstrated that it will sacrifice democracy in the cause of the European project. But now it shows that it will sacrifice the very principles of that project to maintain the sham of unity. How much longer before the whole thing unravels? 

Coppola Comment
The broken Euro
Frances Coppola

Euro experiment finished?

Merijn Knibbe — Deutsche bank: fifteen shades of fraud

I was a little fed up with the stories about banksters from Cyprus. How about Deutsche Bank, the largest bank of Europe, darling of the German government and, Lehman style, “Chief Executive Officer Josef Ackermann, who has called proposals to limit bank size “misguided,” will leave behind a balance sheet about 40 percent larger than in 2006, and more than 80 percent as big as Germany’s economy, when he steps down in May. The firm is the second-most leveraged and third-least capitalized of Europe’s 10 largest banks”. A quick google search on ‘Deutsche Bank’ and ‘Fraud’ yielded the next fifteen links:

Real-World Economics Review Blog
Deutsche bank: fifteen shades of fraud
Merijn Knibbe

Cyprus will not be the next Greece

Tiny Cyprus may have made a lot of mistakes. It may have taken in Russian mafia money, laundered it, and made lots of bad loans many times in excess of its deposits. Maybe it's greatest mistake of all was adopting the euro in the first place.

But it won't be making the same mistake as Greece. For as much as Cyprus and Greece are culturally similar, Cyprus will not submit to the demands of Germany. It will not inflict crushing austerity on its people in the name of saving its creditors or saving the euro.

Here's what an important Cypriot government official and former finance minister had to say:

If we cannot come up with the €5.8bn in a few days then I think we will go to the Cyprus pound. That will be the end of Cyprus in the eurozone. We're going to exhaust all other possibilities but what can we do? If we have no other solution we cannot leave the people without money.

"We cannot leave people without money."

Finally, some sanity! And some courage. Let that be a lesson to the "leaders" of Greece, Spain, Italy, Britain and the United States, too!

If there was a way to buy Cypriot stocks, if Cyprus does leave the euro, I'd totally load the boat!!

system failure — The new big trick of neoliberal bankdebtocracy

What are the main reasons behind the recent scandalous decision of Eurogroup for the haircut of deposits in Cypriot banks?

the unbalanced evolution of homo sapiens
The new big trick of neoliberal bankdebtocracy
system failure

Winterspeak — Deposit insurance in Cyprus

Winterspeak schools Matt Ygelias

Winterspeak
Deposit insurance in Cyprus

Tschäff Reisberg — MMTers warned about and offered solutions to prevent Eurozone bank runs

Tschäff provides documentation for the claim that MMT economists predicted current developments and showed how to avoid it.

This Episode of Life

MMTers warned about and offered solutions to prevent Eurozone bank runs

Tschäff Reisberg

Francis Coppola — Sowing the wind

"They sow the wind and they will reap the whirlwind." — Hosea 8:7

Francis Coppola analyzes the Cyprus haircut. Could this be the new Creditanstalt?

For the fact is that deposit insurance everywhere in the EU has now been undermined. The precedent has been set for insured depositors to suffer losses in order to protect Russian oligarchs and reckless banks. If the Eurogroup can impose this on Cyprus, it can do so elsewhere too. Yes, Olli Rehn says they have no current plans to do so, and insists that the Cyprus bailout is unique. But haven't we heard this before? Wasn't the Greek bailout "unique", and the Irish bailout, and the Portuguese bailout, and the Spanish bailout? It is only "unique" until the next domino falls. I would not be surprised now to see bank runs across the entire Eurozone periphery, and perhaps in other EU countries too. 

Coppola Comment
Sowing the wind
Francis Coppola

This is likely going to be bullish for gold as a safe haven.