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The Head of the Cyprus Central Bank is Named Panicos (Panic Us).

“Now the government must open the banks’ doors with no bailout from the EuroGroup, the officially unnamed group of eurozone finance ministers. Cypriots will be able to pull euro currency out of the banks. That will force the Cypriot banks to sell assets. Their value will fall. They will not be able to cover these losses for long — a few weeks. Maybe less. Would you keep your money in a banking system that needs a bailout? Wait a minute. You already do. So do I. Cyprus was the first system to get to the edge of the abyss.” Continue reading →

Royal Air Force plane takes one million Euros to Cyprus

“The government sent a Royal Air Force plane to crisis-hit Cyprus on Tuesday carrying one million euros in emergency loans for British military personnel, the defence ministry said. The cash cargo flight was a ‘contingency’ plan in case banks in Cyprus stopped giving out money as the island deals with the fallout from a controversial eurozone bailout deal, a spokesman said. ‘An RAF flight left for Cyprus this afternoon with one million euros on board as a contingency measure to provide military personnel and their families with emergency loans,’ the spokesman said in a statement to AFP.” Continue reading →

Is Illinois a bigger default risk than Iraq?

“In a well-publicized move, Illinois decided earlier this week to forgo a $500 million bond offering after the interest rate it had to pay wary investors to buy the bonds rose too high. Illinois must already pay 1.4 percentage points more than states with a AAA rating to attract investors to its debt, thanks to a recent downgrade of the state’s financial status by Standard & Poor’s, which noted among other things the state’s failure to fix its poorly funded pension system. How wary are investors of the state’s debt?” Continue reading →

Florida investment adviser charged with selling $8 million of fake Facebook shares

“A Florida investment adviser was charged Tuesday with selling $8 million of fake Facebook shares ahead of the social network’s highly anticipated public offering, officials said. The Justice Department said Craig Berkman, 71, was arrested on two separate securities fraud schemes involving Facebook shares. Berkman received a total of at least $8 million from these schemes, most of which he ‘misappropriated for his own benefit,’ a Justice Department statement said. Investors discovered the fraud when they tried to redeem their shares in 2012, officials said.” Continue reading →

US regulator: Bitcoin exchanges must comply with money-laundering laws

“The federal agency charged with enforcing the nation’s laws against money laundering has issued new guidelines suggesting that several parties in the Bitcoin economy qualify as Money Services Businesses under US law. Money Services Businesses (MSBs) must register with the federal government, collect information about their customers, and take steps to combat money laundering by their customers. The new guidelines do not mention Bitcoin by name, but there’s little doubt which ‘de-centralized virtual currency’ the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) had in mind when it drafted the new guidelines.” Continue reading →

Is Cyprus a New Energy Battleground?

“If Gazprom were to control this massive resource, combined with the fact that Russia is beginning to court Israel for its natural gas, Gazprom would become the preeminent player in the Middle East for natural gas… and further increase its stranglehold on European energy. The government of Cyprus has initially rejected the offer, opting instead to work with the European Union and keep the natural gas to themselves, the Cypriot government could soon find themselves running away from more EU-mandated madness…and straight into Russian arms. In the next few months, we will definitely see Cyprus become the battleground of the energy cold war.” Continue reading →

Cypriot finance minister says “no truth” to resignation reports

“Cypriot Finance Minister Michael Sarris denied reports on Tuesday that he had resigned, as lawmakers in the troubled euro zone member debated a divisive tax on bank deposits to secure an international bailout. Sarris, who was in Moscow on Tuesday, told Reuters by text message there was ‘no truth’ to the reports, which had further rattled nerves with lawmakers poised to reject the tax.” Continue reading →

Bradley Manning and Freedom of the Press

“Reading from a prepared statement, Manning said he was not pressured by WikiLeaks to release the information and that he wanted to give the documents to The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Reuters, but they did not want what he had to offer. He also said the leaked information had ‘upset’ or ‘disturbed’ him, but did not contain anything he thought would harm the United States if it became public. Regarding the Collateral Murder video, Manning said the ‘most alarming part to me was the seemingly delightful blood-lust’ and that those in the video ‘seemed to not value human life by referring to them as ‘dead bastards.’'” Continue reading →