Merle Haggard Is An Inflation Hawk

He wishes a buck was still silver.

For the ever-popular How does your favorite celebrity feel about public policy? files, I give you country music legend Merle Haggard:

Four or five years ago, I stopped writing about the news. I got disgusted of it. If I were to write my feelings about the situation our country is in, it would be too sad to play.

Inflation is about to eat our lunch, and if we don't get a hold of the financial condition of this country, we're not going to be the leader anymore.

For more on Merle Haggard's politics, go here. For more pop-star commentary on monetary policy, watch Elvis Costello defend the gold standard here.

Comments

[The Sherriff of Fistingham?]

I always liked "Rainbow Stew".

[Professional Target]

I was thinking more like a new version of Tonight the bottle let me down.

Like from Obama's POV:

Tonight Joe Biden let me down
And let his mouth go to town
Sayin' fire your shotgun at some sound
Tonight Joe Biden let me down

Or there could easily one about Obama from our POV.

[sloopyinca]

Here in the middle of conference championship weekend (with the Buckeyes beating MSU and getting ready to play Wisky for the Big Ten Championship) is the perfect place to make my pitch for you all to get ready for the third annual Reason Hit & Run Superdrone College Basketball Tourney Pick-Em.

Just like last year, the winner will receive our gratitude, while the losers are sent to Detroit.*

*Apologies to Dr. Klahn.

[RBS]

I feel like this a good time to remind reason that a weekend sports open thread would be cool.

[Sevo]

"sports"
Squeak, squeak, SCORE! Squeak, squeak, SCORE! Squeak, squeak, SCORE! Squeak, squeak, SCORE! Squeak, squeak, SCORE!
Why not give each team, oh, eighty points and play the last two minutes?

[Francisco d Anconia]

I hate hockey too.

[Virginian]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKuc4nfJByc

[C. Anacreon]

One of the Grateful Dead's most popular covers, believe it or not

[Virginian]

Yeah, I got about forty or so live Dead albums. I may have heard it covered a time or two...or twelve hehehe.

[Francisco d Anconia]

I'd be all kinds of impressed if it was vinyl.

[Virginian]

It's on vinyl the way I keep my book collection on stone tablets.

I have enough music, movies, porn, tv shows, and ebooks to last me the rest of my life. I'm about to start getting rid of all my paper books.

[RBS]

I think it plays about 13 times a day on the SiriusXM Grateful Dead channel. This isn't even close to the 45 times they play Sugar Magnolia though.

[SweatingGin]

Every time I flip it on, it's Scarlet Begonias. Kind of prefer Jimmy Buffet doing it at this point, though.

[RBS]

Ha, yeah, I love the Grateful Dead but I could die happy never hearing Scarlet Begonias, Sugar Magnolia, Casey Jones, Truckin', or Uncle John's Band again.

If I ever got to pick one of those Head Sets that the GD channel does it'd be something like: Standing on the Moon, Row Jimmy, Dark Star, St. Stephen, When I Paint My Masterpiece, Wharf Rat, Terrapin, Mission in the Rain, Mountains of the Moon and Black Throated Wind.

[Palin's Buttplug]

You fucking Dead Head lib!

[SIV]

Truckin' done right you fuckin' hippies.

[General Butt Naked]

Sometimes you just wanna Kill Jerry Garcia.

[The Bearded Hobbit]

Don't forget "Fire on the Mountain"

... Hobbit

[C. Anacreon]

OT: my son turned 11 today. One of his gifts from another kid was this, a full-auto firing nerf "assault weapon" with rotating barrel and detachable stock. Apparently the other suburban parents haven't gotten the memo about how we need to keep kids away from this sort of horrible influence (thankfully!)

[General Butt Naked]

What'd you get him, 9mm or .45?

Don't worry he won't be able to hurt himself because there's a cold day in hell's chance he'll be able to get ammo for it.

[The Sherriff of Fistingham?]

"OT: my son turned 11 today. One of his gifts from another kid was this, a full-auto firing nerf "assault weapon" with rotating barrel and detachable stock."

Turn it in immediately, it's like the gateway drug for future mass murderers. Purchase an androgynous doll of random ethnicity, and an easy bake oven, and/or vacuum cleaner lest he take on any cultural, sexist/misogynistic stereotypes, and pre-dispositions. Also, the Playschool beta-male? gender pacification kit, to ensure he will carry his wife's life partners handbag when he grows up, and empathize every 28 days.

[Whahappan?]

I got something similar for my daughter's friend for his 8th birthday today. I don't think the parents will be horrified. At least I hope not.

[JW]

Nice. I can only image the havoc we would have wreaked if something like that was available in the 60's when I was a kid. No squirrel or friends' eye would have been safe.

I now live in Monkey County, MD, fretful-white-suburban-mother central and home to the helicopter parent and sometimes, you just can't tell. The Boy's best friend's parents are good liberals, the dad is a federal gubmint lawyer for ADA compliance, but both of the parents were raised in rural areas.

They let their kids play with toy guns and buy them every FPS on the Xbox. They seem totally unconcerned for the psychic trauma they're causing their children, yet the kids are pretty well adjusted. According to modern proglodyte theory, they should be out shooting up shopping malls and torturing kittens.

Meanwhile, my wife-unit (raised in Rich White DC Suburb Enclave) wrings her hands over every little maladjustment that may brush up against her special snowflakes. No shooting games and OMG! he watches YouTube videos! The Boy forgot his keys and phone they other day and she needed to take the she-spawn out for last-minute errands. What to do? What to do? I told her, "Let him sit on the porch for an hour or he can do the math and stay at a friend's house until you get back." It never occurred to her to do that. :::sigh:::

[Red Rocks Rockin]

I can only image the havoc we would have wreaked if something like that was available in the 60's when I was a kid. No squirrel or friends' eye would have been safe.

But at least you were able to blow out your eardrums with this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=El6t8lcz0V4

[JW]

Holy shit! I had a handheld version, but nothing that bad ass.

[Wine Commonsewer (TWC)]

Inflation is walkin' on the fightin' side of Merle.

[The Late P Brooks]

Merle needs to have a little talk with Willie Nelson. Help that boy get his mind right.

[General Butt Naked]

The Walker article from aught six linked was pretty good. Reminds me of why I hate that I love Steve Earle's music; he's not only a committed lefty, but he's annoying about it. You know, one of those performers still making GW Bush jokes, like shrike if he knew hot to write songs.

Oh well, I can always listen to some David Allen Coe to make up for that.

[Jason S.]

That is good article.

Amazing to think that Haggard's "Irma Jackson"
was released in 1970. That must've made a few fans squirm.

Earle's "Guitar Town" is a good one.

[General Butt Naked]

If you like that kind of music you should check out Earle's son Justin.

I'd argue that he's got more talent than his old man.

Here's a good one, but I don't know if he's written a bad one. He got a lot of shit for being a famous guy's son, but he lived on the streets for quite awhile and has paid dues.

[Jason S.]

Thanks for the link. Great song and singing-- but why would anyone need to live on the streets to pay their dues for being the son of a famous musician?

Steve's sister, Stacey, comes around once in a while, but I've missed the shows. I guess they have a real musical family. I wonder if they ever play musical chairs? Oh boy.

[SIV]

Steve Earle wasn't bad till he got off the drugs.

[General Butt Naked]

Oh yeah. Ain't nuthin' more self-righteous than a recovering junkie.

Jesus.

[Bill Foster]

For the best version of "Sing Me Back Home"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeWY00gTCvo

And of course:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxzJAF1BxP4

[General Butt Naked]

Good version of Okie, too. Willie and Paycheck playing it up.

[Bill Foster]

Absolutely no argument, just to me few live versions become "the" cut; sing me back home is one.

[The Late P Brooks]

I don't know about Steve Earle, but that whining commie McMurtry should be wrapped in chains and dumped in a swamp.

That guy sucks donkey balls.

[Raven Nation]

Like GBN above; hate McMurtry's politics, love Levelland.

[RBS]

Yeah, how many times has it pointed out that choosing your music/literature/film etc. based on politics will leave libertarians with nothing to do?

[SweatingGin]

Listening to 2112 on repeat is not doing nothing.

[Voros McCracken]

One of my favorite albums of all time is straight Marxist propaganda. Hardly matters.

[General Butt Naked]

How about Wilco and Billy Bragg doing old unpublished Woody Guthrie songs in Mermaid Avenue?

Might as well be Das Kapital, but damn if it ain't a beautiful fucking album(s).

[SIV]

Gang of Four is great stuff.

[C. Anacreon]

I used to play that album all the time when it came out. I really liked "I Found That Essence Rare."

Saw them play in Chicago once, a few years after Entertainment! came out, and sadly they didn't play much of it, going for newer stuff instead. Our group of friends went dancing at a small club after the show and damned if all the members of Gang of Four didn't show up on the dance floor. We danced alongside them for awhile but I think they thought we weren't nearly cool enough to be in their presence.

[General Butt Naked]

Not a big fan of his, but I'll cop to likin' Memorial Day.

He did a lot of anti-BOOOOSH! stuff, didn't he?

[General Butt Naked]

Dang, just saw that he did "Hurricane Party" as well. I like that one too.

[SIV]

Choctaw Bingo sure as hell isn't a progtard song.

[RG]

OT, but has anyone been following what's going on in Cyprus?

Bank deposits were suddenly hit with a 6.5-9.9% "tax" to bail out the banks.

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=218812

[Virginian]

I posted it a couple threads ago. You know how you think the bunker building, Krugerrand hoarding crowd is crazy? Well then something like this happens and you wonder who's really crazy.

[RG]

I'm jealous of the bunker builders. I've long been in the camp of those who think the SHTF fairly soon.

Unreal.

[Irish]

That's just blatant theft. They aren't even trying to hide behind pseudo-moralism anymore. They're just stealing.

[RG]

Scary part is, there's almost no chance the deposits were even there.

[Episiarch]

Taxation has always been theft, they just tried to couch it in terms that fooled people into thinking it was "part of the social contract" and shit like that. But now that the leviathan has grown big enough, it both needs more and more money and is growing less and less afraid about being blatant about just out-and-out stealing it. Which is the logical and predictable evolution of government.

[Irish]

What's absurd about this is that they just decimated Cypriot banking because no one is ever going to trust those banks to take care of their money. Once this hold comes off, money is going to absolutely hemorrhage from that country.

Plus, what happens in all the other bad economies of Southern Europe? If I have money in a bank in Spain or Italy, is there any way I'm keeping my money there knowing full well that the EU and the IMF are willing to do this?

[SweatingGin]

Seems like a good chance of getting a bank run going in most of Europe. It was the eu and IMF, right? What makes Germany safe when they have to bail out Greece and Italy?

Things got interesting this Saturday.

[Irish]

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/.....95325.html

There's already been a Cyprus bank run. That's why they froze the assets. Want to know what really confuses me?

The price tag is very small compared with two rescues for Greece worth about 380bn euros ($496bn), Ireland's 85bn euros ($111bn) , Portugal's 78bn euros ($102bn) and 41bn euros ($54bn) for Spanish banks.

The Cyprus bailout was far smaller than the other bailouts. Why the fuck would you create this level of uncertainty in the Eurozone banking system over a bailout that's only third of the size the Spanish got?

[jesse.in.mb]

Part of the run up to the Cypriot bailout was that Europeans weren't that jazzed about bailing out Russian money laundering operations. I would assume that's why this bailout looks so different.

[Irish]

So bailing out Russian Money laundering operations was terrible, but bailing out the staggeringly corrupt kleptocracies of Greece and Spain was kosher? It strikes me that the exact same reasoning could be used to justify taxing depositors in Greece, Spain or Italy should the Italians later need a bailout.

[jesse.in.mb]

I don't think it's a good justification, I just see why Europeans would be more likely to balk at bailing out a banking system they see as heavily servicing Russian crime syndicates vs governments that are behaving much like Europeans expect governments to behave.

[RG]

Apparently, the IMF wanted a 40% haircut for depositors.

[RG]

Comments on the link I posted said that a lot of money in Cyprus banks is dirty. Russian mob, laundering, etc.

[SweatingGin]

I bet they'll say the same about Italian banks, French, German, British, US.

[jesse.in.mb]

"One-off tax"

Their spin department was laid off due to austerity. That's fucking terrible. At least call it a "preventing ALL of your assets from being liquidated fee" or something fun.

[Irish]

Bankruptcy Prevention Fee

[jesse.in.mb]

One of the local power companies has a "Service Maintenance Fee." When our accounts payable manager saw it she blew a gasket and called to find out wtf it was. "That fee helps us guarantee that you get uninterrupted power." Let's just say she was displeased with that response.

[Sevo]

jesse.in.mb| 3.16.13 @ 9:07PM |#
"One-off tax"

The check's in the mail!

[The Sherriff of Fistingham?]

The "One More for the Road" tax

[Tulpa (LAOL-PA)]

It's not technically stealing. The depositors are getting an equivalent amount of about-to-fail bank stock in return for their "stability levy".

More like a "forced purchase of something no one wants".

[General Butt Naked]

Just read the article. They're implementing the tax over the weekend and not allowing electronic transfers until they get the tax loot.

There is no way to hide that this is theft. None. Fuck.

[Silly ol' Bear]

I agree. It was stupid to go off the gold system. Look what has happened to our economy ever since then!

[The Late P Brooks]

The oppression of the working man continues.

The musicians say that to retain the most talented players, they must be compensated as well as their peers in the country's top orchestras. Base pay for musicians in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic is slightly higher than base pay for San Francisco Symphony musicians.

San Francisco Symphony musicians earn an average annual salary of $165,000, with a minimum salary of $141,700, Theil said. The union has said management was out to freeze musicians' wages.

Maybe McMurtry will play a benefit for them.

[General Butt Naked]

A strike is about the dumbest thing musicians could ever involve themselves in.

For one, the positions are highly competitive and the differences between those who get the job and those who don't are infinitesimal, i.e. they're expendable. Secondly, it's a goddamn super-bush-recession and crying that you only make $160k playing the kettle drum isn't going to elicit a lot of sympathy, and even if it did symphonies aren't making tons of profits right now. Finally, no one will ever want you to play for them again. If I have three excellent musicians that are competing for one spot, the one that has fucked their last employer will probably be given the boot.

[Sevo]

General Butt Naked| 3.16.13 @ 8:50PM |#
"A strike is about the dumbest thing musicians could ever involve themselves in."

They pulled this, oh, ten years ago. At that time Mr and Mrs Sevo were contributors ("Members", doncha know?).
We got a call from one of the strikers stating that the horn tootlers and string pluckers must be paid as were MDs and airline pilots.
Before I hung up, I did point out that those two professions had something to do with life and death and the string pluckers would have to be really bad to cause death. They've never again gotten a penny.
In their defense, *most* of it is private money, but as you might imagine, the SF gov't kicks in quite a bit.

[Silly ol' Bear]

Awwww...I feel sooooo sorry for them...NOT!

[Pope Jimbo]

Hah!

We have an extra layer of corpses (on top of our sequester corpses) from a 4-month old orchestra lockout here in Sunny Minnesota.

The musicians weren't going to let any pesky $6Million shortfalls force them into any wage concessions.

[BakedPenguin]

Sammy Hagar defends the gold standard. Seriously.

[AlmightyJB]

Seems difficult to prosecute thes guys when the victim has no recollection of what happened.

The texts include messages from the alleged victim in which she says she doesn't remember anything the night of the attack and is trying to find out what happened. The girl also implies that she believes she was drugged that night and that others were "taking advantage of me."

http://www.nbc4i.com/story/216.....toxication

[RBS]

Isn't there a video of these guys talking about how dead she looks while one of the other guys is fucking her?

[Virginian]

I don't know. I do love in the news story that the texts which explicitly state that she doesn't know what happened are somehow a damming piece of evidence against the two knuckleheads.

Anyone have a burner account at some feminist website they can use to accuse them of judicially lynching a young black male for sleeping with a white girl? Because I think you could have a lot of fun with that. Just ignore all reason and logic and insist that this is just a racially motivated attempt by the white power structure to keep black hands off their women. Could be really funny.

[Generic Stranger]

TWO VICTIM GROUPS ENTER, ONE VICTIM GROUP LEAVES!

[General Butt Naked]

We shouldn't let our distaste for the "any drink a woman has makes her unable to consent" argument blind us when someone abuses a woman that is truly passed out and is unable to consent.

I know y'all love yous some foooootball (WOOO!), but jesus man, think if your daughter, sister, or friend was drugged or drunk and fucked like that by your supposed heroes. Or, what if you passed out at a party and some fucks thought it'd be hilarious to shove a baseball bat up your ass, would you think that was just good fun had by hard boys?

Fuck, that shit happens to mine my pacifism goes out the window, and they're lucky if all they get is a guilty verdict.

[Virginian]

If that's what happened, then they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and should receive the maximum sentence. I haven't followed the case much, besides reading the media's take on it, and we all know how reliable they are.

It just sounds a little too much like a Law and Order SVU episode to me. Do I think it could have happened? Yes. Is it possible that she consented to the little MMF action, and has now decided that she'd rather be known as a rape victim then a slut? Also yes. If there are any videos or pictures, that would definitely be the kind of objective evidence that would be nice to have to prove her story.

The whole thing just reeks of sensationalism. It ties together the media's hatred for jocks with at least three of the soccer mom's favorite fears about their children. I think that, like with Zimmerman and other cases, we're never going to know the truth for sure.

[General Butt Naked]

The defendants aren't helping themselves.

They admit on video that the girl is passed out and that they pissed on her. I'm sure the video linked above is a conspiratorial move by the liberal media, though.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

[Virginian]

Well shit, I didn't know there was video. That changes things. What fucking animals. I mean, that's just sick, doing that to someone who's passed out.

This just reinforces my feelings that if I ever have kids they're a) not going to public school and b) going to be taught how to drink properly so they don't overdo it.

[General Butt Naked]

Yeah, didn't mean to come off as a dick there. I thought the video had been seen by everybody.

I'd tell my kids like my dad told me, that he knew I was going to be getting into trouble, but if I needed his help he'd be there. My kid would have an emergency stash of ephedrine and a phone number to a burner. If that number is ever called, I'm showing up ready.

[Virginian]

No worries. Yeah I feel like well over half the issues we have with teen drinking would be solved if parents would let their kids drink a little bit when they hit the teenage years. Just thinking about all the times we drank far far too much because we thought you were supposed to kill a handle of vodka in one night or else you were a pussy...yeah. Dumb dumb dumb.

[JW]

I thought the video had been seen by everybody.

FWIW, I didn't see it either.

I'm so jaded at this point, that I just presume that anything the media hypes is as innocent as Snow White. I'd take those odds to Vegas.

That said, fucking rat-shit brained imbeciles. Were that my boy, prison would not be his biggest worry, but The Boy is way, way smarter and ethical than those no-class, amoral morons.

[Irish]

That is the most disgusting video I've ever seen.

[Irish]

They're making jokes about raping that girl. Oh my God.

[Ice Nine]

Just one of those dicks being a man and taking her out of there would have been so refreshing.

[Irish]

Someone actually questions it after the girl gets taken away. He gets some anti-shithole points. I'm not sure if he knew what was going on earlier in the night, but at least he tried to put a stop to some of it. The rest of them can rot in hell.

[AlmightyJB]

The sad thing is that the worst thing that's going to happen to the guys is that they'll be in juvie until they're 21.

[AlmightyJB]

Guilty

http://www.nbc4i.com/story/216.....-rape-case

[lap83]

"but jesus man, think if your daughter, sister, or friend was drugged or drunk and fucked like that by your supposed heroes"

Which is why parents shouldn't let their teenage daughter go get drunk with strangers. Why can't people see that this is one very unfortunate unintended consequence of the feminism movement? Gee, I wonder if society had a reason for not encouraging women to go out with strange men. Maybe because the men who are related/married to her are much more likely to CARE about her? Nah, something something patriarchy.

[lap83]

I find it ironic how much the feminism movement has done for the sleazy horndog demographic. If independence means the freedom to make yourself vulnerable, will it be much comfort to blame the person who took advantage of you or would it have been better to stay home and read a goddamn book? If I get run over by a car while sprinting across the street, I'm not going to think "well at least I had the right away!" when I'm dying on the hospital bed.

[lap83]

*the right of way

[The Late P Brooks]

You can't talk about classical musicians without linking this.

The original study was conducted for the performing arts sector. Baumol and Bowen pointed out that the same number of musicians is needed to play a Beethoven string quartet today as was needed in the 19th century; that is, the productivity of classical music performance has not increased. On the other hand, real wages of musicians (as well as in all other professions) have increased greatly since the 19th century.

[The Sherriff of Fistingham?]

This is a little awkward , was this already posted on?

/O.T.

[General Butt Naked]

Katz, a veterinarian from Yorktown with a practice in the Bronx that lost its license last year, was elected with Tea Party support in 2010 despite reports of federal and state tax liens, animal abuse charges and settlement of a lawsuit involving sex harassment at his practice.

Sounds like a real winner.

[The Sherriff of Fistingham?]

"A combative Republican state assemblyman who voted against legalizing medical marijuana in 2011 was busted for pot possession yesterday, State Police announced today..."

I wonder what his thoughts about The War on Drugs? are now, hmmm.....

[sgs]

What a nice thing, to have an intelligent discussion of inflation without our resident special olympian screech shitting all over everything and demonstrating his gross ignorance of economics.

[Generic Stranger]

Speak not of the Devil, lest he then appear.

[AlmightyJB]

You need not call the devil. He'll come without calling

[Longtorso]

How the govt will steal your 401K:

1. To protect you from unscrupulous investment advisers, and your own greed, the govt will mandate a portion of your 401K will have to be in 'safe' investments. For your own good.

2. Treasuries will be 'safe'. Other things may or may not be - guess wrong and someone at Fidelity, etc. goes to jail.

3. Your 401K investment guy puts your $$ into Treasuries because that's the only guarantee he stays out of jail, and the govt says it didn't explicitly mandate that and anyone who says otherwise is a conspiracy theorist who should STFU.

[Bill Foster]

http://www.suntimes.com/busine.....sible.html

[Cdr Lytton]

I could see state and municipal bonds being added to the ok list, as long as they were "approved" aka payoff to the right places. Back door federal bailout for California and the rest.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

3rd place.

[SIV]

I guess this a music thread, sort of. I'm in Johnny Rebel's hometown tonight and I sure wish I was listening to him play. Remember, don't let an artist's politics get in the way of enjoying his music

[General Butt Naked]

Politics and racism are two different things. Where I'm from there is no shortage of big government, progressive "klan" members.

[Irish]

Neo-Nazis and the British National Party both support virtually all progressive economic policies...so long as they only apply to white people.

[SIV]

PA has always had more KKK (well, since the 20th century) than any Southern state. Indiana is #1, PA is #2.

[General Butt Naked]

I don't know if they were real klan, but in the mountains and foothills there'd always be some dumbass, skinny white boys that would show up at the parties claiming membership. I ain't a tough guy, but I'd tell them I was half black and if they wanted to go I was willing. I only said that because I knew that they wouldn't and were cowards at heart.

When those types would talk about politics, it'd always be some populist "common man" bullshit. They expected to be taken care of like the stereotypes of minorities they perpetuated. Made me fucking sick.

[SIV]

When Johnny Rebel avoids race he can do a pretty good libertarian song.Federal Aid

[SIV]

Johnny Rebel/Clifford Trahan's hometown of Crowley, Louisiana is where Rose Wilder Lane graduated from high school. Her highest institutional-educational attainment. I haven't yet found a historical marker commemorating the Mother of libertarianism.

[SIV]

Pee Wee Trahan's best stuff is apolitical

[Archduke Pantsfan]

SF'd

[SIV]

Whooops!

Pee Wee Trahan - Baby Hurry Home

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Here's something for St Patrick's Day that will get you punched

[Archduke Pantsfan]

And another

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Cheers! on St. Patrick's Day

Best scene ever.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

RIP Harry

[General Butt Naked]

How about:

RIP the Rangers' hopes of getting in the playoffs...

[Archduke Pantsfan]

I hope they lose every game because the Tortorella press conferences will be epic.

[General Butt Naked]

I look forward to the ritual sacrifice of Henrik Lunqvist on national television, and Torts blaming of said sacrifice on Sidney Crosby.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Don't forget Callahan

[np]

More on the Cyprus situation:

Guy tries to bust through the bank holiday with bulldozer:
http://twitter.com/KoosJansen/.....1850195968

Amazingly, the IMF and Germany recommended the fuckers take 40%!

Cyprus state broadcaster CyBC reported on Saturday that German Finance Minister actually entered the Eurogroup meeting on Friday proposing a 40 percent haircut on Cypriot bank accounts. Sarris stated on Saturday that this had also been the proposal of the International Monetary Fund.

[np]

Better pics and coverage on the bulldozer/excavator incident:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/.....nk-runs-br

[Philandering Bastard]

Everybody appears to be outraged that the Cypriot bank accounts are forced to take a haircut but this is exactly how it is supposed to be.

If a bank used to get in trouble you stood to lose (part) of your assets. The financial bailouts of the past years have eliminated this principle of caveat emptor and created moral hazard on a grand scale.

I agree that it's a bit late in the game and the decision is likely influenced by the perception that Cyprus is a mafia haven but the alternative would be to shift the haircut onto other European taxpayers who have nothing to do with the situation.

[Fluffy]

No, you're missing the point.

The deposit seizure is system-wide.

That means that there is no longer any incentive for anyone to try to seek out investments with less risk or depository institutions with less risk.

In fact, if you do so, you're a fool.

If you accept a lower yield in order to keep your investments in a place with lower risk, the EU and the IMF have just announced that when the time comes they're seizing some percentage of your assets to bail out everybody else.

It would be vastly better to let individual banks fail, and have depositors who guessed wrong lose 100% of their deposits, while depositors who guessed right experienced no haircut at all.

[Philandering Bastard]

Fluffy, I agree that letting banks fail would be vastly superior. Apparently, this is not a policy option. That being said and with this constraint in mind:

- the Cypriot banks' balance sheet is 8 times their GDP. They all look to be equally in bad shape, due to their exposure to the Greek haircut last year. Their failure would perhaps / likely / possibly have much graver consequences for the Cypriot population.

- Letting, say, Slovakian taxpayers cough up the dough is in my opinion even less defensible than hitting the Cypriots because the former have no chance to push for consequences via the political process.

[General Butt Naked]

Yay! Capitalism FDR style.

[Tulpa (LAOL-PA)]

If a bank used to get in trouble you stood to lose (part) of your assets. The financial bailouts of the past years have eliminated this principle of caveat emptor and created moral hazard on a grand scale.

No, the claims of deposit insurance are the culprit here. We're talking about bank deposits, not stock market investments. If you want to go back to the days of national bank panics every ten years or so, OK, but don't claim that deposits are backstopped by the govt.

[Philandering Bastard]

People are acting as if the banks or the Cypriot deposit insurer were somehow isolated from the rest of their economy. To reiterate: the Cypriot banks have combined balance sheets of eight times GDP.

If they go belly up, their deposit insurer is fucked as well. At some point, the losses will have to be realized or a sugar daddy has to step in. I'd prefer that sugar daddy not to be funded by hapless taxpayers in Slovakia.

[SumpTump]

Dude is jsut cool like that either way. Wow.

http://www.Goto-Anon.tk

[nannasin28]

they should be out shooting up shopping malls and torturing kittens. SSM2164