Dagens billede: Vladimir Putin på besøg hos Angela Merkel i Hannover, da letbeklædte FEMEN-aktivister stjæler billedet (og Putins opmærksomhed). Foto: Jochen Luebke … Read More
‘Emotional rollercoaster’: Cypriot students protest amid bailout furor
“People wake up, they are sucking your blood,” said one sign. “Death to Merkel,” said another. The country’s youth are also expressing concerns about their future: “‘Troika’ will bring us to the point that we have no future. We cannot find a job,” a Cypriot student told RIA Novosti. Unrest has widened following the $13-billion bailout deal which has seen the freezing of deposits over €100,000. A withdrawal limit has been imposed on ATMs, and capital controls are in place to prevent the movement of funds. The eurozone bailout did not alleviate the island nation’s worries. Residents who have not taken to the streets in anger are also feeling the pinch, especially with the central bank remaining closed. Cypriots feel that a line has been crossed, and are worried about cash flow, jobs and savings. Even the manager of the Bank of Cyprus, Demetris Antoniou, fears for his employment prospects: “For the first time in my life – for 30 years – I worried. And the last week, and especially in the last two days. I worried a lot. It was like… I was going to wake up, and listen to the news that I don’t have a job anymore. And I’m 50. I’m not 20. To start my life and say ‘okay.’”“It is like they want to push us – the Bank of Cyprus – after a few months, to collapse? I wonder – what is this? It’s not fair,” he added. The bailout plan has been met with widespread anger, with few residents welcoming the deal.“They’re very frustrated,” said RT correspondent Tesa Arcilla, who is in Cyprus. “This has really sent a very bad message to people. They’ve lost confidence, they’ve lost trust.” All Cypriot banks will remain closed until Thursday, despite an announcement late on Monday that they would reopen on Tuesday morning. The move has prompted concern that the country’s financial institutions are even lower on cash than expected. Laiki Bank will essentially be shut down, resulting in widespread job-losses, which also prompted hundreds to protest over the past few days. Demonstrators at previous rallies wielded signs declaring that they would rather die standing than live in debt: “We won’t [be] Germany’s slaves,” one read. Capital controls are still in place in Cyprus, meaning that banks are able to impose restrictions on the amount of money citizens are able to take from the ATMs, or how much money they can move around. “We have no cash. We are just… queueing behind the ATM machines, waiting to get some cash. For how long?” one resident said. The restrictions are creating an intense atmosphere of uncertainty, and some mild hoarding of cash supplies. “Everybody is trying to hold onto those 5 or 10 euros that they have just in case there’re even lower limits, because right now they can only take about 100 euros,” Arcilla reported. Some are even feeling nostalgic for the old Cypriot pound. “With the pounds – peace and quiet,” another resident said. “It’s better to go back to the pound.” The recent events in Cyprus have prompted fears that similar moves could be enforced in other countries, and could be a template for how problems are dealt with in the future.“If there is a risk in a bank, our first question should be ‘Okay, what are you in the bank going to do about that? What can you do to recapitalize yourself?’ If the bank can’t do it, then we’ll talk to the shareholders and the bondholders, we’ll ask them to contribute in recapitalizing the bank, and if necessary the uninsured deposit holders,” Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem told Reuters. There is additional concern that Germany may have been trying to make an example of the country, and that a precedent has been set for potential future bailouts.“If there’s unrest in Cyprus – it’s not Portugal. It’s not Spain, it’s not Greece – it’s not a massive country. So what Germany was actually able to do was to enforce its might on a small country in which any kind of unrest, violence or protest will be relatively contained,” said Financial Advisor Margaret Bogenrief, co-founder of ACM Partners.“If you’ve been reading the press – they’ve been extremely upset about footing the bills for these other countries, and I think what they were saying was ‘look, just to let you guys know – we can do this,’” she concluded. … Read More
Bank of Cyprus to cut up to 40% off deposits over €100,000
Irish Radio is quoting the chairman of the Cypriot parliamentary finance committee, Nicholas Papadopoulos, who said that the levy of 30 per cent will be imposed on the deep-pocketed savers. “I haven’t heard a formal announcement about the haircut, but this is the figure I heard,” he said. Bloomberg reports an even bigger figure as it refers to two EU officials, who claimed that the losses would be no more than 40 per cent on uninsured depositors at the Bank of Cyprus.At dawn on Monday, Cyprus and the troika of international backers (EU, ECB, IMF) reached agreement on a €10bn bailout plan, aimed at preventing the bankruptcy of the island’s financial system and the country’s exit from the Eurozone.Under the plan the depositors in Bank of Cyprus will be compensated with equity in the bank, while Laiki Bank, which is the island’s second largest financial institution, will be closed down.Those with deposits under 100,000 euros in both banks will continue to enjoy the protection of the state’s guarantees, after an earlier proposal to impose a 6.75% tax on them provoked anger.“The result that was found is right,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. “It also makes those who helped cause these undesirable developments play their part. That is how it should be.”Germany has long insisted Cypriot banks, which attracted foreign investors with high interest rates, needed to contribute to the bailout.“I think that a fair sharing of the burden was achieved,” she said. “On one hand, the banks have to take responsibility for themselves. That is what we have always said: we do not want taxpayers to have to rescue banks, we want banks to rescue themselves.”It will help”stabilize the situation in Cyprus and help Cyprus back onto a path of sustainable consolidation. I think the solution can help win back lost confidence for and in Cyprus,” German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told a news conference after the 11th-hour talks ended with a deal.”It is the best path possible even if it isn’t an easy one.” Russia doesn’t appear so optimistic.”I think they continue stealing what’s already been stolen. We need to understand what this story will finally lead to,” Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev commented on the move during a meeting with his aides on Monday.Despite the deal Cyprus will remain at risk of default and a Eurozone exit for a “prolonged period,” believes Moody’s senior credit officer Sarah Carlson.”The system’s profile as an offshore financial center is unlikely to survive this crisis,” Carlson added. “The potentially irreparable damage to the country’s current drivers of economic growth leaves its ability to sustain its current debt highly in doubt.”Banks are due to reopen on Tuesday, however, withdrawal limits will be imposed to avoid a run of capital. … Read More
‘Merkel playing hardball, going to drive Cyprus issue into ground’
RT: So what held it all up? Why couldn’t they reach adeal?Ivor Crotty: This goes back to the EU-Russia summit last yearwhen the Eurocrats basically told Russia that Cyprus would be theirproblem to solve. Russians had a look at it and said, “No, notreally, we think it’s a eurozone problem”, but they had stampedtwo-and-a-half billion (USD) to keep the island float. So timing iscrucial here. A change of government in Cyprus last year delayedany possibility for a resolution, but it crucially brought anychance of a deal into the German election cycle, which is takingplace in September this year. And this is why Merkel is playinghardball: she needs votes. And the SPDR opposition have identifiedCyprus as a wage issue. Her uncompromising stance which is backedthe raid on privately-held deposits in Cyprus forced the Cypriotsto go to Moscow looking for help.RT: But I thought it was some sort of EU limit of moneywhich Cyprus can borrow from now – inside the EU, anyway.IC: At this stage the Cypriots are pretty much ready to talkto anybody. The Russia-Cyprus connections are well-known, but it’snot that Russia is the only one.RT: If they’ve been talking for a year, why is it takingso long to reach some kind of deal?IC: Again, this comes back to the change of governmentinside Cyprus last year, that it wasn’t possible for them to make adeal while the political transition was going on. Right now, theRussians are looking at the situation, and basically sent theCypriot ministers packing with their bags empty for two reasons:firstly, specifically, is that this is a eurozone problem. Russiansaren’t going to get involved in what is ostensibly an internaleurozone contagion issue. But secondly, they don’t think thatCyprus has hit rock bottom yet. Merkel is playing hardball now, andshe’s going to drive that issue into the ground, and nobody – notthe Russians, nor the Chinese – aren’t going to touch it untilMerkel’s game has reached its zenith.RT: That carrot was being dangled to Russia yesterday aboutCyprus’s gas reserves – Russia wasn’t interested?IC: There’s a couple of interests here. Cyprus has beenconfirmed to be nowhere near filling that debt hole, so it lookslike it’s going to be a very long weekend at the holds of Brusselsin Berlin. … Read More
Default Rolls In? Cyprus gets no Russian cash, ‘EU no help’
http://www.youtube.com/v/13mG-7GSZ-o?version=3&f=videos&app=youtube_gdata Link: Default Rolls In? Cyprus gets no Russian cash, ‘EU no help’
Nyt tysk parti kræver afsked med euroen
Tyskland skal ud af euroen, og D-marken skal genindføres. Sådan lyder de kontante krav fra et nyt tysk anti-europæisk parti, der satser på at stjæle utilfredse vælgere fra Angela Merkel … Read More
German education minister resigns amid plagiarism scandal
Angela Merkel (R) and Annette Schavan address a press conference at the chancellery in Berlin on February 9, 2013 (AFP Photo / John Macdougall) Germany’s education minister has announced her resignation after a university withdrew her Ph.D, accusing her of plagiarizing parts of her thesis. This comes during Chancellor Angela Merkel’s campaign for a third term in office.The decision to resign came several days after Heinrich Heine University of Düsseldorf stripped Education Minister Annette Schavan of her doctorate on plagiarism findings. A review of her 1980 thesis, which dealt with the formation of conscience, was undertaken after an anonymous blogger raised allegations of plagiarism online last May. The probe culminated on Tuesday in a decision to revoke Schavan’s Ph.D. on the basis that the university council found proof that she had “systematically and deliberately” copied parts of her thesis from other authors.The minister denies the accusations, intending to take legal action against the university’s decision.”I will not accept this decision — I neither copied nor deceived in my dissertation,” Schavan told reporters, speaking alongside Merkel at a news conference Saturday. “The accusations … hurt me deeply.”Schavan, a member of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), made it clear that she wasn’t going to undermine the reputation of the party and the government in the lead-up to the parliamentary elections scheduled for September 22.”If a research minister files a suit against a university, that of course places strain on my office, my ministry, the government and the CDU as well,” she said. “And that is exactly what I want to avoid.”Merkel praised Schavan for her professional accomplishments as a politician whose career in education began 17 years ago, saying she “had much to thank [Schavan] for.” Johanna Wanka, the regional ed
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ucation minister in the state of Lower Saxony, will replace Schavan, Merkel said.The scandal comes two years after the now-former Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg was stripped of his doctorate and quit, also accused of copying parts of his dissertation. … Read More
