Richard Wolff tries to put this into perspective, and into the context of ‘austerity’ policies:

Interview with Tom Hartmann.

Until this week Cypriots thought that they had depositor’s insurance up to 100K.

When is someone going to be put in jail for causing these situations?

I do not see any difference in breaking a legal contract for depositors insurance and breaking a legal contract for government based social insurance through “expedited congressional processing”.

Durbin and other catfood specialists are trying to run around end again by creating a commission to make cuts to SS which would get ‘expedited processing’.

In both cases, governments are not above breaking the law of contracts.

Not until Obama is out of office. At least.

Boxturtle (Odds are that his successor will continue this policy regardless of party)

Leave the Eurozone, jail the banksters. It’s the only reasonable way forward.

THis is what happens when you have decades of corrupt, greedy bastards running the government in it solely for the purpose of looting the country for themselves and for their buddies.

Uh oh!!!!!!!!!

ONE party, TWO names.

“. . . Everyone feel better?”

No! And Cyprus is all of 0.2% of the EZ (or entire EU?) economy.

All for the want of a horseshoe nail, no?

Wasn’t that insurance against bank failure, but not theft?

Incredible. The trifecta: chained CPI, higher FICA rates and upping the retirement age. Funny how raising the cap is never an option

Durbin should be primaried and then run a third party if he prevails. The Democrats should go the way of the Whigs.

Way to piss this down your leg Dems. 2014 could have seen more gains in Congress due to the ridiculousness of the Tealiban doubling down on their fiscal and cultural war craziness. But alas they are a wholly owned subsidiary of a guy who is not only a lame duck but lame

If I were Hillary or Biden, I would be horrified of the coming reckoning.

Blowback ain’t just for foreign policy

Taking the money in one lump overnight is curiously controversial considering another way to take people’s money.

Simply leave the EZ, and devalue the new currency whatever it’s called. A round about way of inflation. I wonder if that would be as inflammatory as what’s already happened. Maybe the folks are burned out already. Maybe that’s the idea among the PTB.

Thank you so much for that link, TT! Around the 4:30 mark, Prof Wolff said he wanted to make a very important point. The only reason that the government and bankers did not get away with this gross theft of depositors’ funds was that the people of Cyprus said, NO WAY! No way are you making us pay for a crisis we didn’t cause!

They pushed back, hard, and that was what stopped it. That is what we are going to have to do, or we are going to suffer the theft of Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid benefits, and who is to say that a similar bank situation won’t arise here?

Durbin is not only shopping around another fast track, unconstitutional catfood committee, but at Corrente there is a link to The Hill in which Durbin says:

Durbin said he is personally open to further [huh?]privatization of Medicare as long a private insurers are forced to “play by the rules” that Medicare uses to lower costs, and that he realizes some of his liberal friends “are not happy” with his position.

If Obama backs cuts to entitlements, Durbin believes enough Democrats would support the president to get a bill through Congress.

“If a president comes up with a reasonable approach which ends up giving years of solvency to Medicare. … I think that many Democrats will come around to that position,” he said. Obama’s imprint on the proposal would shield many members from grassroots anger, he said

They will take any and everything that we allow them to take. This is in our hands. No one is going to do this for us. I just wish we had some leadership or guidance.

Thanks. Watching Prof Wolff now.

I just wish we had a critical mass of USians paying attention & willing to get off of their lazy asses to protest. Won’t happen. Where’s that clicker??? Gimme!

Me too. Unfortunately, folks like us are the only ones who seem concerned about the theft of our money by banksters and elites.

In one way, the craven attempt at taking money directly out of the bank accounts of Cypriots to hand over to the criminals running the world economic system is an eye opener for me. Holy crap. Things are getting serious now…

Do not miss the link @ 1. It’s really important.

Exactly! But as you and onitgoes say, are enough people paying attention?

Just last year Cyprus wasn’t talked about much and most of the DIRE deadline BS was directed at Greece if you recall. Now the lab test for austerity is Cyprus and they can’t manage that. Just because you control most of the wealth doesn’t make you clever. These PTB’s are thrashing about trying all sorts of ways to keep their wealth and power. The future does not belong to them and the sleeping dog to me is the 52%ers not part of the 1% or the 47% that Mitt disdains.

When the banksters propose taking money out of our checking accounts, people will pay attention. It’s a much foggier notion to take money out of our retirement accounts.

IMO, the elites are not flailing around trying to keep their wealth and power, they are building both massively at our expense. Only Iceland has fought back.

These elites are global elites, too. The same banksters who are trying to steal from Cypriots have already raped Greece, Spain, Italy, and Ireland. They’ve already raped Africa and South America. They’ve been screwing Americans for a very long time and they’re still trying to get more from us. It’s a global problem and we need to create some solidarity with citizens like us around the world.

IMF is a criminal enterprise working with and through banksters. It’s created a set of guidelines for national “prosperity” through austerity for people and obscene wealth for the elites.

/rant over.

I think they may only go for a tax on the deposits over 100k or,as you imply, it is a lie and theft. Although, on second thought, just taking a depositors money is also theft. But at least they have representation? A whole parliament full of tea partiers.

Gawwwd, that ass is sooooo wrong about medicare solvency. It hurts me, literally. It hurts me as much to think he is right that enough democrats will support it.

On the Cyprus thing. Good on them. But what do they do when the money is gone and come Monday or shortly thereafter it could be gone, no more banks and no more euros? They better come up with a plan quickly. And if you have euros in the bank what happens to them? do they become like confederate money? Can you transfer them to Germany? Who the hell knows. They better think this one through.

Hate to say this but it looks like the third time in a hundred years someone is trying to take over Europe – - only this time without the guns. Heel!!! Damn it.

If anyone still thinks the Democrats will save the day, they should note how confident Durbin is that they won’t, how he mentions several awful alternatives and no good ones, and how disdainful he is of his “liberal friends.”

Excellent point.

When Bush tried to destroy Social Security, Democrats stopped him.

When Obama tries, quite a few Democrats will support him.

Exactly why voting for a DINO like Obama rather than voting Green was not the lesser of “two” evils.

We have to stop voting out of fear.