‘Blackmail has replaced solidarity’
By imposing a tax on bank deposits in exchange for a €10bn bailout package, the eurozone leaders have, at best, set “a dangerous precedent”, and, at worst dabbled in “blackmail,” writes the European press. - The agreement reached on March 16 between Cyprus, the Eurogroup and the IMF forecasts a 6.6 per cent tax on deposits of less than €100,000 and 9.9 per cent on those above that threshold. Blasted as “arbitrary,” an “expropriation” and even “hazardous”, the measure endangers the solidarity among the eurozone countries and even the free movement of capital within the EU, commentators point out. Under the headline, “Europe botches another rescue,” the Financial Times slams the unexpected bank deposit tax, adding that “just as the eurozone had begun to set the right course in its struggle with an ever-mutating debt crisis, it relapsed into its old vice”.
Reuters: Cyprus lawmakers reject bank tax; bailout in disarray
New York Times: Cyprus Rejects Bank Deposit Tax, Scuttling Bailout Deal
Cyprus Mail: Cyprus Declares “Bank Holidays” Until Thursday
Russia Today: Bailout or bankrupt: Cypriots (and Russians) hold their breath
PresseEurop: A rescue plan that will kill us
Mike Adams: It's not a 'haircut' - it's THEFT when governments loot your private bank accounts
Zero Hedge: The Rape Of Cyprus By The European Union & The IMF - A bank account is not a bond or a stock or any sort of investment. This seems to be lost on many people. A bank account is the private property of a citizen or a corporation and does not belong to the government or at least that was the supposition up until now in Europe. Let's be quite clear; the European Union has confiscated the private property of the citizens in Cyprus without debate, legislation or Parliamentary agreement.
Mike Adams: Cyprus government raids private checking and savings accounts as citizens panic - The day is coming when the U.S. government will claim it "owns" a portion of all our bank accounts, and it will electronically drain our accounts of money in a grand theft scheme designed to pay off the banksters while decimating private savings. Don't believe it? That day has already arrived in the European nation of Cyprus, where the government made a secret deal with the IMF to loot private bank accounts of up to 10% of current deposits. Banks went along with the theft, sealing off the funds from account holders. The government now plans to initiate millions of funds transfers as early as Tuesday, draining private accounts of the money the government now claims it owns.