The Virus Is Spreading
Over at the CBC Neil MacDonald has a look at Canada’s ‘Cyprus solution’ for bank defaults.
Same plan, to seize deposits to bail out banks that gamble and lose. Once again the investor-class is protected while the 99% get screwed.
The US and UK are talking along similar lines about doing to their depositors what the ‘troika’ did to depositors in Cyprus. They must really think that taxpayers are a totally separate group from bank depositors.
In the US state and Federal government programs have been pushing people towards banks and direct deposit for years. Many of the subsidy programs are now available only on debit cards that banks are profiting from issuing. They are shutting down printing of Social Security checks and tax refund checks, and soon if you don’t have a bank account of your own you will receive a debit card that will deduct fees for every month it is active and every time you use it.
It is well past the time when the states had their own banks, like North Dakota does, and the Federal government had its own bank. These threats against depositors don’t seem to take into account that unless there is a state bank, local governments have to keep their money in a commercial bank. They will be among the depositors who will be screwed, and all of their money is tax money.
