Cyprus bailout deal spares savers with small deposits

Quickdoots What has happened in Cyprus is not theft. People have lost sight of the fact that depositing money in a bank is just like lending money to any other business (e.g. a chip shop). If a chip shop goes bust either because of incompetence or because its customers cut down their spending, the money lent to that business is lost. The only difference is that the FCSC (i.e. the Britisn Goverrnment) provides an insurance for the first £85,000. This is exactly what has happened in Cyprus. Wake up, we live in a world where there are no guarantees. The unfortunate fact about Africa is that their economy will not generate the incomes and expertise needed to pay for and provide the maintenance needed. Within a few years the brand new water supply system would collapse into neglect and disrepair. In the 50s and 60s western aid provided tractors. Within a year or so they were rusting wrecks. The locals had neither the money to buy spares nor the skills to fit them. The last thing that Africa needs is the humiliation of white people providing inappropriate high tech gifts and food aid which distort and stunt their developing markets. Leave well alone. In the 80s we all contributed to Live Aid and to "make poverty history". The only difference between Ethiopia then and now is that the population has doubled. They are all still living on the edge. It was all a total waste: more white people telling them what to do.

What if you have £500 k in several accounts, say £50k in each? How long before this theft virus spreads, it may be the Euro bankers testing the water and if they get away with it in Cyprus they will hit the rest of us with similar taxes. The US is to blame for this mess followed by greedy investment bankers. Fund managers are the only ones to benefit from private pensions as you have to live to be 95 before you get your money back without interest, whilst fund managers take their annual cut. With regard to the above post I also believe that everyone has the right to clean water why do we hand out billions to corrupt officials in the corrupt third world instead of installing infrastructure that would help the poor in those countries.

Sorry, am I missing something? Is this not pure, unadulterated theft? I don't think I'm being dramatic here, but can you imagine our government, having mis-managed our finances for decades, running us into debt which equates to over 900% GDP, bailing out the grossly negligent and incompetent bankers - rather than criminally prosecuting them and putting them in jail (like they have done in Iceland) then coming and raiding our POST-TAX savings??? Actually, it's only the last point that hasn't happened yet... so are we next in line for this treatment? The only answer is to go back to the gold standard, or another 'standard' that isn't based on creating money out of thin air, perpetually devaluing the currency itself and putting all the power of the world into the hands of the few who operate the printing presses, and "few" is a gross understatement! And to go off on a tangent... How can we put thousands of miles of pipes down to transfer oil through some of the worst terrain in the world (Southern Russia, Afghanistan, etc) while we can't even get water to babies in Africa. The world is messed up at the upper echelons. Ahhh I feel better for that little lunchtime rant! :o)