Google honors Cesar Chavez but not Easter on Easter- Why?

Well Easter 2013 has come and gone..

Its not something we overly celebrate but we have respect for those who do, which it seems makes us the exception rather than the rule, especially as far as corporations are concerned.

Take Google..

We really weren't aware of it but it was brought to our attention by someone in our inner circle that for Google's "doodle".. that is to say the little artistic picture that the search site often uses to acknowledge special days..  Easter was once again completely ignored.

Instead, was a doodle honoring labor leader Cesar Chavez, whom two years prior President Obama stated March 31st being a day to honor him.  Thus the excuse was given to ignore the real meaning and significance of yesterday for a billion or so people...

This is what the doodle looked like:

Now we at A&G are not interested in defending nor disparaging Chavez nor even Google..

We know why the decision was made this year and in previous years to completely ignore both any Christian or even secular references (easter eggs, bunny rabbits, etc..) to the holiday...

It comes down to two reasons:

1)  Google does not want to offend China.

They are currently the #2 search engine in China behind a search engine called Baidu, and remember, China's population is 1.321 Billion... That's a little more than a full billion people more than the total population of the US.

Now the People's Republic of China does not recognize Christianity as having much significance in their nation.  Even though there are probably 75-80 million Christian Chinese that only represents 5-6% of the populace at most..

Officially, the government census minimizes them even more so.. In 2000 they stated their national census counted only 4 million Chinese Catholics and 10 million Protestants.

So you see that to put anything pro-Christian on their website is a dangerous proposition for Google in their goal to maintain a foothold in China.

You think our reasoning is unfounded, perhaps??

Not only has Google for many years capitulated to China's demands that many websites be censored to Chinese users based on content leaders feltdeemed worthy of blockage of access, but have at various times assisted China with spying on the Gmail accounts of Chinese citizens.

The only reason Google ever took a stand of any kind against the Chinese government was their servers were hacked by China in 2010 and the symbolism offended Google greater than any fear of profit loss.

Also remember, Google is an international corporation.. they profit in many nations where Christian populations are minimal to non-existent in size.

So why would they want to go out of their way to offend groups easily offended in order to placate a group of people who pretty much tolerate everything?

And this kinda leads to point #2 why Christians are disrespected..

2)  Practicing Christians aren't really that important to Google's business model.

Really that statement can apply to a lot of companies, especially the ones who think they're clever-clever by smushing Christmas, Hanukkah, Ramadan, and Kwanza into the pathetic umbrella of 'Happy Holidays'..

~ Notice the safe symbols Google uses to acknowledge Christmas-- a snowflake, Santa, a bell, a snowman, a candle and a gift box..

Its the ultimate disrespect to anyone who has any core faith or religious conviction in any belief system.  Its saying.. "Eh.. whatever it takes to get your $$ without offending others since we want their $$ equally so.."

The business mindset is: Christians can have their 'Santa', Rudolph and Frosty and everything in red/green motif..  For the Jews, we'll have those spinning top toys, um..um.. dridels displayed everywhere.. harmless enough.. OK, they're appeased..

Muslims?  not sure what to do about them but as long as we don't display crosses or Stars of David anywhere, they should stay calm, and those Kwanza celebrators? Well, technically their 'faith' doesn't start till after Christmas so we'll worry about them then...'

Let's be very cut and dry about it...  look through an advertiser's eyes...

Who's more likely to try new things... to leach on to new looks and fads?  To need the latest toys, gadgets and gizmos to show off to their friends, neighbors and co-workers...  To need to shop to fill the inner void...

Is it the person of faith who is content with their belief system and place in this world and who embraces a certain level of orthodoxy of custom and tradition in their religion; a person who has a scheduled yet happy life full of work, family time and church or synagogue or mosque

OR

Someone more secular and open in their belief system; someone more accepting of different points of view and lifestyles as they will ultimately be more accepting of different products and services sold in different wrappers and slogans;  someone needing to show the world they are special and different and unique.. a never-ending quest through consumption...

Both kinds of people are good.. there are no 'baddies' here..

~ Everyone's opening presents & have no reasoning as to why.. Yay!

But Madison Avenue finds the second option much more desirable than the first... Dramatically so.  And thus businesses like Google and even entertainment will craft and cater content to appease and please the secularist because that's where the money is.

Remember, how do advertisers get you to buy toothpaste and cookies and soap?  Temptation..  And what is it that people of faith fight because it goes against religious teaching?  Yes.. Temptation..

See the conflict?

It's really no different than how media and advertisers discriminate with age.  Which group of people are treated by advertisers and Hollywood with the greatest insignificance and irrelevance?

Yes..the elderly... and why?  Because statistics show that once people reach their late 50's, they reached the peak of what they're going to spend.  Instead, this is a time of contraction...

Generally speaking, the kids have left the house so no need for a 4bedroom, 3 bath home...  No need for the extra furnishings, the family SUV.. etc.. If one has a business, they're in the process of selling it to another or just closing up shop.. etc...

But because people by this age are pretty set in their ways and shopping preferences, it takes more than scantily clad bikini girls and cool, hip slogans to get someone 60+ years old to try a new soda or automobile brand..  It takes the one thing businesses don't want to do..

Lowering of the price.

So the elderly are ignored like Christians and Jews and Muslims and Hindus who actually practice their faith and have contentment inside from it..

So Google knows those offended by their lack of acknowledgment over Easter will make a mini-stink but there will be no sincere, effective boycott.. No sincere harm to Google's profit or its stock market share value..

As long as their shareholders are happy with no Easter acknowledgement, then there never will be one in the future

So the only real question left is this... Those who genuinely care and are sincerely upset-- how can you organize and galvanize so that maybe next year Google will do the right thing?

Only you out there can answer that..

Norway: A rare example of a Successful economy

As we end another week here at A&G, we thought we'd shift our attentions from nations who are economic failures and frack-ups (Yes, the word 'frack' is intentional... our swear jar is already filled to capacity after the whole Cyprus fiasco)

So we turn our eyes to northern Europe; a a very beautiful country that admittedly we fell in love with during the 1992 Winter Olympics in Lilyhammer...   Norway.

Norway is the envy of the world: growth is strong, per capita GDP has exceeded $100,000 and the nation sits on a $700 billion rainy day cash reserve, or $140,000 per man, woman and child.

This is due to a combination of Middle East-style oil wealth combined with a generous Nordic welfare model.

What is more interesting than finding a success story amid the the economic rot and sewage which is Europe thanks to the continued existence of the Eurozone, is how others want to portray all Norway's successes as negatives or impediments.

We found a Reuters article last Sunday on this topic entitled, "Sitting on too much money, Norway risks going off course".  Just reading that title made us shake our heads in irritation..

Here's some 'nuggets' from the silly Reuters article..

"It may just be too much money as Norwegians, more keen on leisure and family life are working less and less.  Immigration is not filling the gap in the skilled part of the workforce, so productivity is stagnating, wages are surging and firms are pricing themselves out of their own market."

Isn't that terrible!  Norwegians have more time to spend with their families where its well documented that children are more likely to be raised properly and live healthy, normal lives from a stable two-parent home...

Just awful... Don't they know it would be so much better if they made dramatically less salary, worked longer hours and paid less taxes so there'd be far fewer social services.

And those poor firms!!  Those poor corporations..  Making them pay good wages and 28% corporate tax rate...  Its just so mean!

Why can't these people be miserable, personality-less entertainment-addicted zombies like us, dag-nabbit?!

Continuing...

"Wage costs are up 63 percent since 2000, about six times more than in Germany or Sweden... Unemployment is a barely visible 3 percent as more prefer part time work...

The government recently warned that unless working hours are increased by 10 percent over time, the state will eventually start eating into its savings. The central bank also warned that the welfare model is simply encouraging people to leave the labor market."

Ahh... here's the real Alice In Wonderland 'black is white' Kicker...  Everything that is supposedly to be Good about a nation--  Everything that a nation is supposed to strive for-- extremely low unemployment, good wages, free time to pursue other interests or family bonding, minimal to no poverty, low crime,etc...

Its all treated as 'Bad'.

Banks can't profit off people when times are good.  You want to buy a car or a home.. maybe you take out a loan for 50% the total... or 25%... or pay free and clear... And how can any bank gouge you for 5-30 years then??

How can there be debt slaves when people aren't getting into debt??

And what's the #1 cause for adults over 30 years old getting into severe debt-- enough to end up going bankrupt??   Medical bills.

And how can you make the Nordic people suffer financially if their welfare system takes care of everyone?  Or complain about the drain on the costs to the national economy when so much income is being generated that no one's complaining over the taxes?

See what we mean... gotta follow the dots..

Norway has a budget surplus of 12% of GDP. We in the US as well as most nations in the world are running deficits...  Which is better?   Correct..

In the US as well as most nations, the people serve four purposes-- Work, pay taxes, consume and obey the law...  If they aren't working, you the government can't tax them to death and profit off each person living and breathing...

Few governments will say this openly but its in no one's interest to have a society where productive work is accomplished in 80% the time, leaving endless leisure time for citizens to pursue their dreams or worse have time to actually follow political news.

Governments get away with murder simply because a vast percentage are soooo exhausted mentally and physically from work, they want to watch silly, light fluff on TV to relax them rather than watch or read news.... Just too tiring...

The reason its important to know how government values you is simple-- so that you and we, and everyone in between learn to look at ourselves as Individuals and not accept the Collectivist mindset that the decisions of a few or one affecting us all, is a good thing.

Norway is the economy the world should be tirelessly striving to be like..Instead, with a 'Billy Budd'-like envy (Herman Melville short story about everyone jealous of a genuinely good looking man), the goal is to create warts where none exist..

If/when there's another global crash, it will be nations like Norway and Canada who ride out the storm pretty well in comparison to others...

Cyprus Q&A; Answers 25 wds or less

Its another day in the black lagoon which is global finance..

We were told by a few that yesterday's post was extremely long to read... 

Sawwy.. 

Sometimes we forget this is 2013 and attention spans tend to be rather short in comparison to days gone by..

For instance, the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 went on for Hours...  Hour upon Hour of verbal grandiosity and the people who sat and listened, did so with total eagerness and enthrallment--

To people of the mid 19th century, listening to two orators bloviate was entertainment...

Now we live in a soundbite age..

So we'll see if we can be accommodating in today's post.  We're going to try to summarize the whole Cyprus situation up to the present through a Q&A with each answer no more than 25 words... Some responses, we may only use 1 or 2 words...

Let's begin..

Q:  The Cyprus banks are finally open after 13 days including weekends... All is well right?

A:  Um, no...

Q:  How so?

A:  The banks in Cyprus are nothing more than humanized ATMs-- 300 euro limit withdraw per person per day..

Q:  That's not good.. but if that's the worst, well not bad considering, right?

A: People leaving Cyprus are not allowed to take more than 3000 euros with them... The rest will be confiscated...

Q: Oh.. well just those two things, right?

A: In addition, a ban on cashing of checks and barring businesses from transferring money abroad unless showing it is for imports.

Q:  So what is the currency rate between euros to US dollars?

A: One euro = $1.28.  300 euros = $384  

Q: That's really not much is it to withdraw... quite a pittance, yes?

A:  Yes but people get what they deserve.

Q: What do you mean?

A: Twelve days of Cyprus banks closed and people protesting peaceably with signs and singing; they don't get it..

Q:  Get what?

A:  They have no future.. no nation.. no hope.. Poof.  Their one economic lifeblood-- offshore banking now killed.  No revenue stream to pay back loans.

Q:  Well Cyprus knew what they were doing right?

A:  No.  Parliamentary vote on deal was skipped; Nation utterly naive about need to stay in eurozone.

Q: Well Cyprus was/is in a real economic bind.. what would you have done differently Smarty?

A:  Would have negotiated with Germany: 'FULL 100% bailout loan or we leave EU instantly'; No bluff.. Comply or Die

Q:  Well how much power do you really think you would have had?  Cyprus is a tiny-tiny nation with population less than a million...

A:  If Cyprus was so unimportant the troika would have offered Zero. But they are.. Once a dam breaks...

Q:  Anything else on Cyprus real quick?

A:  Deposits of more than 100,000 euros will be frozen i.e. No access.

Q: Two brief questions as we close this Q&A.. The first is why does it seem people keep taking 'It' from their governments such as going on in Cyprus?

A:  Complacency, disbelief, fear of standing out, fear of losing stuff, blind trust in System, etc.  Very little different than Jews of early 1930s Nazi Germany...

Q: You Must explain..

A:  Jews had rights slowly stripped; assets seized.. capital controls placed.  When they tried escaping, they were searched- cash confiscated.. like in Cyprus.

Q:  Last question for now...  Can any of this happen in the US?

A: Absolutely.  Going to feel even worse when it happens because we're kept in dark.. We WANT to be kept in dark.

Q:  That's not true..

A:  If Cyprus-like money controls happened here, we'd freeze up.  Plenty of opportunity to withdraw cash presently; to prepare-- so few do...  One big joke.

Q:  Good point..

A:  Can't prepare for the unexpected After it occurs folks...

Worse: News Quality or Readers' efforts to seek it out?

~ Back by popular demand... bodypaint girls...

We came across a Commentary in the Guardian UK's business section that we found interesting though we disagreed almost 100% in the writer's conclusions.

The topic was how the quality of journalism and news has dramatically deteriorated and that even those most content is now free, we're all 'paying' for shoddy news in one way or another... pun pun..

We are most appreciative to have something non-Cyprus to write about--- as if how many ways can one warn people that Cyprus is merely a testing ground for worse to come to southern Europe, if not beyond, and to Wakey-Wakey!

To try to peel the proverbial 'onion' to understand why corporate media journalism is overall so horrible, it will require the reader to be open-minded in understanding it is not one specific simple reason, nor did we get to this point in a day or a year...

Not to pick on the Guardian UK commenter because he definitely stimulated the 'little tiny corpuscles' as Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot would say, but to explain clearly why journalism is rotten to the core, we need to refute the writer's premises.

A link to the original commentary can be found HERE-- simply click...

The first contention he makes is that the available amount of free information on the internet for someone to access, is 'picking the inventory clean'.  He lumps bloggers into the mix, labeling them as semi-pros at best..

How flattering.. cough..cough..

So let's really understand this-- why is there so much free information out there to pick from.   Answer: Because all the news agencies and outlets pretty much use the Same information, thus its not valuable enough to protect in the first place!

Example:  Let's say the Dow drops 1000 pts because of concerns Martians may soon invade Earth...  

So rather than every media outlet-- newspaper, TV station, etc hiring their own beat reporter to track this story down, they hire news agencies to provide the news content.  Associated Press and Reuters will hire the journalists, they will write and the info is provided in aggregate.

Let's get more specific... Ace reporter Amy Aames writes 3000 words on the event... she does a couple interviews, gets a few quotes, fills the rest of the story with background and after an editor checks for content and spelling/grammatical errors, its approved for distribution.

Some newspapers will only publish the first 250 words...  Others will need 6-7 paragraphs to perfectly fill in the space around the daily Macy's 'sale' advertisement..  

As long as the paper does not literally re-write the content or alter who gets credit for writing, they can alter the placement and take out whatever content as they wish.

Let's say Aames writes in paragraph 10 something construed as harshly anti-Democrat, liberal media outlets will likely cut the passage completely out while conservative-leaning media will likely keep the paragraph in its entirety.  

Now this same information is sent to every TV network across the globe who pays a subscription from the major nightly news channels to cable news to the local news one watches at 5:30p.   The content is edited down, usually into 2-3 sentences, where perfect-looking people will get paid 6-8 figures/yr to read it off a teleprompter.

That's the vast majority of the news we receive.  Its mass produced, cheap to use, cheaper to distribute and thus is not deserving of the expectation that others would pay to acquire it!

For most news outlets, the only journalists they'll keep on the payroll is those covering the local sports teams, and perhaps 'cat stuck in tree' human interest stories...  

Even publications like the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, half the news content minimum comes from AP or Reuters, and they have the audacity to firewall their information...

Going back to the Guardian UK commentary, the writer then talks about lack of advertising and how it forces news outlets to create pretend articles that are really advertisements under the cloak of journalism, etc..

Ultimately its everyone else's fault- namely the general public as to why news quality has eroded..

Not true. 

We the general public deserve a portion of the blame but not all..  We may want to be catered to but someone else must join in the dance and do the catering...  Takes two to tango...

For instance, most people are narrow minded.  They believe their world view is the correct one and don't wish to take any time to really read or listen to contradictory opinion.  This is why news is fractured.

We all know Fox is politically conservative even though they keep saying 'Fair and Balanced' which by now is a tongue in cheek nod to the fact they know no one believes this.   And yet they're constantly the #1 cable news network on TV ratings-wise.

Their success forced a once bland MSNBC to take a severe turn to the far left and they do an excellent job covering the news from their very biased and limited point of view; the perfect point-counterpoint to the limited worldview of Fox.. This change from being unbiased to unabashed Blue State, has been a money-maker for them too.

Ironically their sister station CNBC is Extremely conservative... perhaps even more so than Fox News. Of course we mean fiscally conservative as in its alright to make as much profit as humanly possible without worrying about silly things like one's conscious, the struggles of the bottom 99% or the greater good of the nation...

Now CNN, finding themselves in last place has been desperate to find a niche.  They've tried being objective and fair..  To many its come across as boring and dull.   They used to have a show on years back called 'Crossfire' where Dems and Reps yelled and pretended to hate one another.. then the show was yanked and now the whole network is still in the proverbial desert trying to find itself...

As for network news, who knows.. we honestly don't bother watching any of it.  Most of the anchors are liberal which in itself doesn't matter..  How much of their worldview seeps into the content of the news they report--  let others debate that but it does seep...

To be fair, don't let anyone convince you of the lie that news used to be sincerely fair and politically balanced... It has rarely ever been.  

Back in the 19th and early 20th century before the advent of television and internet, many newspapers would compete in each city for readership.   And besides the papers called 'Times', 'Inquirer' and 'Enquirer', they'd be called 'Democrat' and 'Republican'... every page of those papers seeped in the juices of their publisher's personal biases.

A final point the Guardian UK writer makes is a potshot at bloggers in particular that our content is worthless because there's no editorial oversight so we can just write and print as we wish, whereas mainstream news prides itself on thoroughness.

Interesting...  and complete bollocks, to coin a British word...

Editorial powers have a double-edge to its 'sword'...  Here at 'Ants and Grasshoppers', if we feel a specific person or entity is deserving of a most thorough thrashing, then as long as nothing written is libelous or crosses any lines into criminality, we're free to write as we wish and let the reader decide if he/she is in agreement...

However, if we wished to skewer a soft drink company or a brand of computer, we can do so Freely because we take in Zero ad dollars.. we don't seek advertisements.. we don't want them.   That's how our readership knows we aren't exploiting their patronage for personal gain.

When ABC News reported a few years ago on all the faulty tires Firestone was manufacturing and the recalls, one after another, both Firestone and Ford, who used Firestone tires on their new vehicles, threatened to pull all their ad revenue from the network if the reports did not stop...

The coverage ceased immediately, the ads stayed in place and what more does one need to glean as to who wins in the corporate media 'war' of content vs ad dollars?

If you want to truly be informed and most importantly to be able to understand the news from multiple points of view, ultimately its upon you the individual to commit the time and energy..

No person with sincere intelligence ever had knowledge spoon-fed;  He or She had to work to acquire it... That's why there's a massive difference between someone genuinely Intelligent and someone who's merely 'smart'.

Take time to look at news sources from all perspectives.   Watch 30 minutes of Fox News then 30 min of MSNBC...  see how they cover the same events different..  Sift through the sewage and find the truth that's somewhere between the two...

Also expand your horizons.. if you're American, take time to read a newspaper outside the country. Plenty of english-written newspapers.. it can be from Canada, Britain, Australia & NZ... many other nations have english-translated papers...

You can never ever understand the world at large or grasp the complexities or subtleties of what's reported as news if you stay within your comfort zone.  And you don't have to change your beliefs or values in the process..

So ultimately we at A&G disagree that news is terrible, inferior and all that...  Its just become very specialized because generally speaking the masses have gotten lazier and more dumbed down; unwilling to make the effort to look or listen to opinions one differs with. 

There's more information accessible today for free at one's fingertips then in the entire history of time.  Ultimately its not about scapegoating the 'media'.. its about you.. How informed do you wish to be and how willing are you to work the brain muscles like you might be your abs, gluts and pecks?

A rising Dow as 'real' as body paint is 'clothing'

~ Psst.. don't tell any of the women in this post they are actually wearing body paint not clothing and thus are nude.. it might affect the Dow shhh..  shhh...

Cyprus-Shyprus..

Hard to take any island-nation seriously where its people protest the bank holiday on day 10 and still do so peacefully...  Guess they didn't get the memo that their leader extended the bank closings an additional two days to Thursday...

Oh well..  It's a new day.. time for a new topic..

Peeking in the stock market, we see the Dow is up another 100+ pts at 14,550 and counting..

Its funny.. we used to think the visualization of 'bullshit' was something brown and pungently nasty sitting somewhere in the grass...  Now just have to turn on CNBC or other finance news and see the TV drenched in it...

The traders screaming Buy & Sell like hyper ADD monkeys...  The analysts wearing $1,000 suits telling mom and pop their idiots for not buying into this market.. The attractive anchorwomen with their snug sweaters with intentional low-cleavage to make sure no one changes channels..

Ugh.. What else can be said..

Oh yes.. So Reuters writes the S&P 500 is within striking distance of its all-time high "as strong data on home prices showed an economy that was improving.."

Paragraph two, they explain, "Single-family home prices rose in January at the fastest pace in more than six years."

Hurrah!  Glory Be Thy Name.. Let's 'Rally round the Flag Boys (and Girls) and shout the Battle Cry of Freedom', and 'God Bless America' and "America #1-- rest of world Sux!'...  

OK, we made that last song title up but trust us, that's how Wall St thinks...

Now same article.. maybe 4-5 more paragraphs down.. what does it say?

"In a sign that growth continues to be slow, sales of new U.S. single-family homes fell more than expected in February, and the latest reading on consumer confidence was weaker than expected."

Huh??

So.. The market rallied over 100pts so far based on January 2013's single-family home sales figures, and Yet ignored the fact that February, 2013, which comes AFTER January, fell more than expected, dropping from 431K to 411K...

Ah..

And then there's consumer confidence..  The Consumer Confidence Board released its monthly estimates..  "March consumer confidence plunged to 59.7 from 69.6, and well below expectations of a 67.5 print."

Gee, that's never good is it.. Certainly not +100 pts or whatever 'good'

But most people really don't give a damn..  Let's be honest..   The finance media can point to a chart or graph or say the rising stock market is based on watching celebrities 'dance' and jump off diving boards..

As long as things keep going up and people's 401Ks and pensions keep rising, does anyone really have the guts to point out the "Emperor" is naked with his shriveled up grape-sized tally-wacker exposed for all to see??

Who wants to rock the boat and stop this 'exciting rally' based on fluff, fart blossoms and $85 billion/month in Fed money which breaks down to $1,967,592.59 spent Every MINUTE based on a 30 day month, 24 hrs/day, etc...

'Hells-bells, if my personal investment portfolio goes up a couple hundred dollars every month, that's $85 billion well spent.. heh heh~ '

Government and bankers and financiers can manipulate a lot..

But one thing they can not control fully is human behavior i.e. greed...  And when the day comes when people feel this market can not go any higher, there Will be a massive sell-off.. orderly then panicked...

Its just how the human animal was constructed...

And where will you be then?

Cyprus- How the Evil won and Lessons to learn

Well, we wake up this snowy Monday where we're located and see Cyprus' leaders sold its soul to the banking troika...   Not the first to capitulate and not the last...

Seems the only world leader with any real conviction is located in North Korea...  

Take of that sentence what you will...   

But trust us, if Kim Jong-Il was sitting at that table across from that most vile, detestable group of European finance scoundrels and jackals (backed by the US money) waiting to pounce, he would have probably told them: 

"어머니는 창녀 고 모든 지옥에 갈 수 있습니다."

This we would be translated as:

'Your mothers are whores and you all can go to hell'

Really-- its Disgusting that the only leader in the entire world with any guts to put bankers in their place happens to be him!   Him!

We can't see any other leader telling the banks and the professional Investors/vulture capitalists, and other Dogs to go fuck themselves and shove their harsh terms up their rectums...

Can you?

So what happened last night?  

Oh nothing much-- just an agreement to raid the accounts of depositors holding more than 100k euros to the tune of at least 25% and cap of no more than 40% losses, while sneakily avoiding Parliamentary approval after because cleverly its not called a 'tax'.

So.. let's say Person A had 250,000 euros in a Cyprus bank today and couldn't get any out due to the 10 day bank holiday preventing wire transfers or physical acquisition of cash...

How much will he/she have once this levy takes place?

If its a 25% levy, he/she will now have 212,500 euros, a theft of 37,500

If its a 40% levy, he/she will now have 190k euros, a theft of 60k

** Remember, the first 100k euros are still to be insured so the thievery will occur on the non-insured portion...

Another example: let's say Person B has 500k euros in Cyprus banks...

If its a 25% levy, he/she will now have 400k euros, a theft of 100k

If its a 40% levy, he/she will now have 340,000 euros, a theft of 160k

~ Oh they're wealthy... Oh they deserve it..  Oh its only mostly Russians who got hurt-- who cares...

Total rationalization...and utter ignorance to justify blatant theft of personal property; the first time in human history this has ever taken place-- siphoning money from individual depositors to pay for government incompetence...

So what lessons can we learn:

1)  Governments and banks may have been repulsed when seeking to raid ALL depositors of banks, but now precedent has been set and moral hazard gone.... 

If you have more $$ in the bank than what is insured (100k euros in Eurozone, 50k pounds in Great Britain and $250k FDIC in the US), you're opening yourself to being a victim if/when there's an emergency which requires a shutdown and bank holiday...  

Beware!

2)  Governments do what they want... If they think they have the votes, they'll go through Parliamentary or Congressional vote.. If not, they'll bypass it..  If its a Constitutional question, it will be side-stepped or the 'argument' cleverly re-worded so as not to apply...

3)  Banks and Investors own the world.   They truly do.  Just about every nation on earth is in serious debt and owing money to a global bank...  Currently only three nations do not owe a penny-- Cuba, Iran and North Korea... Ironic, isn't it...

Prior to a year or so ago, there was a fourth nation to the list-- Libya.. But then the US sent warplanes in under the guise of a multi-national effort, assassinated Qhadafi and the IMF was right there to immediately provide long term loans to the Libyan 'freedom fighters' for their new government..

See how it works?

So what's done is done.. the Asshole Ass-umptionists.. the Ass-umers that cackle that all will be well and everything happily resolved to the benefit of the global markets, will be correct again..

Nice winning streak they're riding..

We look forward with glee to seeing their faces when events and situations arise where they are on the losing side..

So.. Cyprus... you didn't have the Guts to leave the Euro.. now we leave your little nothing nation-island behind to mire in the rot of economic depression and misery your leaders brought upon you...

And tomorrow will be a new day in the evil world of finance and markets..