Channel 4 News reports on how depositors in Cyprus are losing a proportion of their savings as condition of bailout plan

Mail on Sunday: Cash machines EMPTIED across Cyprus as 60,000 British savers face losing MILLIONS after £8.7billion EU bailout imposes tax on all of nation's bank accounts

Comments

[Michael mcgough]

Is this a speedy form of QE.
Financial deposit tax leaves you less money,QE ,leaves you with less valuable money.
Either way spending power is less.

[Paris Claims]

Theft. There's no other word for it. I hope the worst hit, Russian gangsters, exact a terrifying revenge.

[Denis Cooper]

But was it possible to keep the preparations secret from the Russian gangsters?

And could there be favoured depositors who were quietly given advance warning?

The man in the street, yes, they could keep the preparations secret from him and then suddenly spring it on him, but others may have had forewarning.

[Richie_M]

The UK soldiers based in Cyprus do need protection from this theft however. By default they have their pay and funds accessible in or via Cypriot banks, but why should their funds be raided for an EU bailout? Surely by showing their Forces ID in person at the banks, their funds should be ring-fenced as UK national cash?

[Denis Cooper]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21820237

"Cyprus bank levy: UK to compensate troops and government workers"

So that will be a small contribution made by UK taxpayers towards bailing out the government of Cyprus, on top of the UK taxpayers' money which has already been committed to the IMF for its participation in eurozone bailouts.

[belbylafarge]

I am sure andrew lillico would approve: he floated an idea similar to this one on conhome a few months ago. Beware monetary sadists: this is the ugly alternative to qe.

[Denis Cooper]

A less ugly alternative to QE is to have a government which can remain wedded to prudence for more than just a few years, which doesn't then habitually and chronically over-spend, and which doesn't end up either having to get the Bank of England to print vast sums of new money for it to spend or resorting to confiscation of savings.

[Reaper]

Welcome to EU democracy.
Money stolen staight out of your account with no notice and ne democratic involvement. How much longer before savers in Italy, Spain, Greece and Portugal have the same theft inflicted on them.

Also how long before UK subsidiaries of overseas banks such as Santander have money taken directly from their accounts to bail out Spain. Perhaps we should all consider withdrawing our money tnext week just to be on the safe side.

[Dave Hollins MBA]

Confiscation of savers' money? What do you think QE and ultra-low rates in the UK are?

Oh wait, we can overlook this, while letting the UKIPpers have another go at he nasty EU.

[Denis Cooper]

Amazing that somebody can get an MBA without knowing what "confiscation" means.

Just shows how standards have dropped.

[Dave Hollins MBA]

It comes from the Latin, meaning a transfer to the State - maybe you should have learned Latin and English, when failing your GCSEs? Your infantile attitude to education is rather too typical of the UKIP/Conservatives on here.

[Dave Hollins MBA]

And Denis, if you really wish to parade your ignorance, presumably you know more than a Nobel prize winner: "The monetary theory of inflation literature has long noted that the inflation tax and a monetary confiscation are equivalent" (Milton Friedman)