Wednesday 20 March 2013

QUOTE OF THE DAY: Hayek on Cyprus

With European ATMs shut down, accounts being frozen, stock markets tanking, and the Cypriot parliament (and people) almost in open revolt, the EU’s move to begin stripping Cypriots’ savings accounts in order to order to maintain “stability” has lead to anything but.

Russ Roberts at Cafe Hayek beautifully paraphrases Hayek’s view on the matter:

“The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to Cyprus and the EU how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.”

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yep - it seems to be the "law of unintended consequences" coming into effect there.

Anonymous said...

Is it unintended thor42? They must know that if they take the money out of people's bank accounts like this then all the othr people all over Europe and othr places will scramble to get as much of their own money out as they can while they can. A bank run.

People, they will never trust in the banks ever again. A bank run all over Europe and in all the othr places is going to come because of this.

They must know this. It is so obvious. They do know. So why are they doing it. What is the serious intention of doing this. Who wins?

They are not stupid people in there influencing and running nad gaming the system or in behind the politicians. Must be a reason for it.

Amit

the drunken watchman said...



which stockmarkets are tanking?

the drunken watchman said...

I mean...

I read that "stock markets are tanking", immediately rushed to turn on CNBC ....

and saw a headline

"WILL S&P HIT RECORD TOMORROW"

and the announcer talking about the health of the US economy.

Is CNBC on a stale feed ?

Peter Cresswell said...

"Financial markets in Europe fell sharply in early trading Monday following the surprise announcement of a levy on bank accounts in Cyprus as part of a financial bailout.
Markets in Italy and Spain — countries regarded at the highest risk of further financial crisis – saw some of the biggest share falls, particularly in the banking sector...

"It's a Cyprus shock,” Ken Hasegawa, a commodity sales manager at Newedge in Tokyo, told Reuters."

Peter Cresswell said...

Bizarrely, despite US problems, European problems still cause a rush to the "safe haven" of the US dollar--the very dollar that Ben Bernanke is printing lots more of.

Still announcers on CNBC will never grow stale talking up the health of the US economy.

the drunken watchman said...



.. oh, but havent the European markets mostly rebounded since?

not exactly a "tank", I think

and it is not just CNBC talking about US "recovery" - even Fox is starting the same line