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InterNations
Economy

Cyprus Bailout Has Strings Attached - Well, It's About Time

It's the failure of an entire business model, not just a few banks. Who might be next?

Larnaca, Cyprus
Larnaca, Cyprus
Claus Hulverscheidt

-Analysis-

MUNICH - One thing is clear with regard to Cyprus: Chancellor Angela Merkel and Germany’s Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble would do best to lay low for a while. It is at their urging that the country’s bank account holders are being asked to bear part of the cost of an international bailout.

One could also put it this way: money would be partially expropriated from these account holders, and even in Germany, the question is now being asked -- where does this end, and how much of Merkel’s 2008 guarantee with regard to German savings still stands? On Monday, one radio listener called in and asked how he could be sure that the government wouldn’t next be expropriating money from German account holders like him.

"Why would they do that?" the moderator asked. "Because they can!" the man replied.

Yes, they can -- and in the case of Cyprus the move is fundamentally right. Euro bailouts so far have enabled many of those bearing part of the responsibility for the crisis to get off scot-free. Take the case of Ireland, for example. What the country basically did was bail out foreign banks that Irish banks owed money to, and Irish taxpayers were left with a tab they’re still paying – and the Emerald Isle was subsequently left to stew in its own juices as many who should have shared the burden were absolved of all responsibility, and promptly turned their backs on it.

Such course was only corrected on the second Greek bailout package, when foreign creditors were also predicting apocalypse if they got a haircut – yet the apocalypse failed to materialize.

In Cyprus, the euro countries are going one step further: instead of just handing over the billions, they’re asking what the country, and its own and foreign financiers, are bringing to the table to help solve the problem. It only makes sense, because the collapsed business model with its tax dumping, lax financial controls and enticing incentives to foreign millionaires wasn’t devised in Berlin or Paris, but in Nicosia.

[rebelmouse-image 27086496 alt="""" original_size="800x533" expand=1]

Angela Merkel and Nikos Anastasiadis in 2012 - Photo: European People's Party

Now that the euro countries have a permanent bailout fund, they are no longer helpless in the face of blackmail attempts by the financial markets.

That said, however: as right as it is for the holders of large accounts to bear part of the cost, it is equally clear that small account-holders need to be protected. It is hard to understand Cypriot President Nikos Anastasiadis’s claim that they have to share in costs because without them the requisite amount of money can’t be raised, which only serves to fuel opposition to the plan and divert attention away from the fact that the government is not moving on crucial points.

Raising corporate tax from 10% to 12.5%? Laughable. There’s still no financial transaction tax, and the question as to whether -- over and above savings accounts -- securities custody accounts, villas and “mailbox” companies will also be subject to the planned wealth tax remains unanswered. Anastasiadis must respond.

In Cyprus, it’s not just a question of a couple of banks having overreached: it’s an entire economic model that has failed. That’s the difference between this situation and Germany – and that’s also the reason why savings there are in danger and not here.

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FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

And If Ukraine's Fate Was In The Hands Of Republican Senators And Viktor Orban?

In the U.S., Republican senators called on to approve military aid to Kyiv are blackmailing the Biden administration on an unrelated matter. In Europe, French President Macron will be dining with the Hungarian Prime Minister, who has threatened to block aid to Ukraine as well.

photo of viktor orban walking into a room

Orban will play all his cards

Sergei Savostyanov/TASS via ZUMA
Pierre Haski

-Analysis-

PARIS — Make no mistake: military aid to Ukraine is at risk. And to understand why, just take a look at the name of French President Emmanuel Macron’s dinner guest Thursday at the Elysée palace in Paris: Viktor Orban, Hungary’s Prime Minister, and Europe’s No. 1 troublemaker.

Orban is threatening to veto a new 50 billion euro aid package for Ukraine at a European Council meeting next week. He could also block Ukraine’s negotiations to enter the European Union, an important issue that has provided some hope for this war-torn country. These are votes on which the unanimity of the "27" EU member states is required.

But this is not the only obstacle in the path of Western aid: the United States is also immersed in a political psychodrama, of which Ukraine is the victim. A new $60 billion aid package from the Biden administration has stalled in Congress: Republicans are demanding legislation to shut down the border with Mexico to stop immigration.

What does this have to do with Ukraine? Nothing, besides legislative blackmail.

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