Given recent events in Cypress where the governments first approach was to confiscate savings from everyone to varying degrees, does anyone see this as a dangerous precedence for future actions by other governments in trouble to cover their expenses? Are savings in France insured and if so, who is insuring them, the very government who would be confiscating the money?
Totally agree Glen. Something tells me you will not be alone in your actions.
I had similar but with 35 of 40 years in...
The difference between 1913 when they said there could be no war, was that virtually every royal family in Europe was blood related to one degree or another, including the Russian royals. Germany, it was believed, would never wish to act militarily against the low countries since the Kaiser was related to them and at the top of the food chain most people believed that royals, already hated by the majority of every population bar the UK, were the real heads of state. The sabre rattling turned to war a year later against all predictions, partly because of very stupid diplomacy. The contemporary world is incomparable because the real hegemony is those who hold vast fortunes and positions of financial power. Royalty is now little more than symbolic. Politicians are the playthings of high finance although the UK sees just how far a few press oligarchs use their double whammy to control politics. International conflicts in Europe are most likely to be financial than armed wars, which is what the most learned economists have been predicting for 30 odd years. I was lucky enough to see a fair few of Amartya Sen's seminars on related topics which send shivers down my spine.
For all of that, yes Jefferson was before his time and almost a prophet. To trust those who pull financial and economic strings and are now the most powerful and dangerous people in the world is folly. What we have just seen in Cyprus is perhaps indicative of what financial war's weapons might be. Confiscations could easily break the backs of nations. The Euro is a safety valve that may stop it happening within Europe, bear in mind that despite what has happened, none of the members of the queue to join the EU and Euro are waivering. It is within the Euro that doubts have arisen and unsurprisingly they are driven by the finance sector that is closest to Sterling and US$, albeit that much of that same sector in the UK does not want the UK to leave the EU.
It is a complicated paradigm, probably nothing much will happen and the dust will settle again. Eventually though, some nasty things may begin when Euro, US$ and Yuan begin to cross swords. By then Sterling might well be a small role bystander. Despite big talk, the last and present governments have all but set in the process of the decline of the £ and there is no political force in the UK who could begin to turn what is now happening around. If the union begins to break up with the referendum next year seeing Scotland march, then start getting rid of Sterling very fast.
Not exactly confiscation but in fact I might have been better off in Cyprus than in Britain with a pension pot of mine! In 1988 on my accountant's recommendation I put a wodge of money into Equitable Life for a pension date of 2010. However what with total mismanagement of the company and also maladministration by the SFA I along with thousands of others lost the greater part. Those who bought later did after years of evasion by the company and sundry British governments did get some derisory compensation. Many died before they got it. If I had invested the same money in a Cypriot Bank I would have probably just come in under the confiscation threshold. Yet you hear British politicians criticising the Cypriots for being under the thumb of the Russians etc. At least one would have had some sun too!
You are correct, nothing to invest does mean nothing to lose. Just keep the daughter's locked in the house until after the wedding night.
Not if you have zero disposable assets! If you put any money you may have into these areas you just feed the greedy board members and their bankers. Trying to make something from nothing is a fools and crooks game. You are just acknowledging that the areas you mention for investment are shark infested waters.
Food, water, energy and seed company securities, US, NZ and OZ dollars -- for the shorter term. Armament companies for the longer term and ultimately rotating into physical gold and tangible assets seems a good bet.
It was a nice experiment while it lasted. People borrowed and saved before the financial oligoths. So with a portfolio reallocation, there is a return to a Droit du seigneur, just pick your lord wisely..
All my money is in my current account and pocket. Maybe that's the answer - don't have any like me! I actually don't care about all this 'what can I do with my money' stuff. Come and join the vast majority of the planet and don't have any! If you've got plenty then you should be smart enough to know what to do with it. If you lose it, maybe that's a kind of justice.
I'm curious though, if you're going to get out of the €'s and £'s, what do you get into? I reckon you should just spend it all on goodies today, for tomorrow we may all wish we were dead!
What you are really asking is "do you trust politicians/bankers/unelected EMF personnel"?. This applies to any country within the Euro zone, but I hasten to add that the UK lot are not trustworthy either, unless you have been fortunate enough to be on another planet for the past 5 years. Let us not forget that the EMF guaranteed deposits up to €100,000 and were quite happy initially to help themselves from those deposits. This will not have escaped their counterparts in the UK - greed is amazingly vigilant.
Essentially what the government/banks/EMF did was to ignore the front line risk takers - shareholders, bond holders etc.- and decide that the depositors money didn't belong to the depositors, but was theirs to do with as they wished. Benjamin Franklin (and Thomas Jefferson) got it right when declaring that banks simply "used other people's money for their own benefit". Jefferson went on to say that the banks were "more dangerous than standing armies", and he was right.
The fact that this has been tried on, albeit with an attempt to divert the public attention towards it being a measure against Russian oligarchs and money launderers, should provide fair warning. Anyone who believes that other European governments (and maybe further abroad) would not stoop to such measures is a fool - almost analogous to believing that war could never happen prior to August 1914.
Get stuffing the mattress, or better still get out of €uros and Sterling - Armageddon will arrive sooner than you think
Potentially nil!
I simply think it is not possible, unless "someone" wants to lay the country in rubble and ash.
In France, a few hundred years ago was with the French Revolution the code of a civil association created. A closure of banks would be like a termination of this agreement in which was at the same time also stipulated that owning property / assets demands responsibilities.
Please, Guys, be careful what you write! I hear about the wider picture with my clients and I do not think it wise to admit to accepting black money and that you keep sums at home. You would not believe the ease at which people can access your identity, not the least what tax offices do to tease out taxes unpaid. Just a word to the wise....
The Black economy is 'crime'. Politicians don't learn from the lessons of history. Fostering a lack of trust in the banking system as well as raising taxes is a great way to encourage the black economy. Of course, if people are encouraged to be employees in the society, they are trapped outside the black economy, except for small transactions. The self employed who can deal in cash have much more scope.
Try Nationwide BS in the UK. That's where my (very small amount) is. I have all my pensions (I have six - a sign of modern times) paid into the current account. I can withdraw up to £300 a day here with no penalty on exchange rate and just a small fee (for paying into my French account to cover outgoings). Their credit card can be used with no exchange rate penalty and no other fees, for all other purchases here. So I can get my money over here at very little cost.
I would say the UK is the safest place to keep your money, and probably a building society rather than a bank!
Yes Chris, it looks that way. Some calculations tell us that 92% of all 'money' in the world does not really exist. Even if it is half of that then something has gone very wrong long, long ago.
But for the currency printing, the world is in a period of contracting (deflation). There is a point that printing must stop, just like the music. It is one reason that I believe the "tax" was imposed on Cyprus and the "Russians:" it was a dog whistle and test.
Maybe, but it is beginning to develop the characteristics of an investment operation that pays returns to its investors from their own money. Seen the other way, the money paid by further investors (here, whoever sees a possible profit to be made from structuring), rather than from profit earned by individuals or organisations running the operation will all disappear into a 'black hole'. As Amartya Sen said some years ago, money never disappears it goes somewhere else where 'other people' can find it, Cyprus bears all the hallmarks of such schemes.
True, so true...
Agreeing with you here Christopher.
:(