The Cypriot government at the behest of the EU-topia has began to seize and steal bank deposits – all for the good of the children one should understand. It is illegal, unconstitutional and immoral. Cypriot banks are bankrupt and should be restructured. You don't pillage savers to bail-out banks and governments. Moral hazard is now the default program, and the illegitimate spending and Keynesian excess, not to mention corrupt and criminal nexus of the banks and the state; will simply continue ad infinitum, until the average investor and family is denuded of all fungible assets. After that it will be your house.

I would have thought they would 'go' for the retirement accounts first....but alas insolvency has its own pace and urgency. Easier to steal deposits from the 'little guy'. Cyprus is just a harbinger of the future of the modern Socialist-Nationalist state. From Nicosia to Paris to Washington, the same theft, rhetorically sold as a 'loan' will occur. In some states the government will come for your retirement funds by forcing those monies to buy government bonds with a supposedly good rate of return. When that fails [capital flight, offshore accounts, falling tax receipts etc], the angels in government will attack bank deposits, and waive the 'insurance' mandate for such investments. All of those fees you paid in 'deposit insurance' will be forgotten.

The Communist Party which runs Cyprus has done a wonderful job at creating a communal bankruptcy. Certainly the Russian Oligarchs have dumped billions into Cypriot banks creating a financial system which is 8 times the size of the economy [vs. 1 x in the EU topia and USSA]. Great management job by the concerned socialists of the EU and Cyprus. Now the 'little guy', which every politician drones on about, will pay up. How kind of the elites.

A great overview of just how large the debt problem truly is in the modern nation state, and this ignores unfunded liabilities [link]:

Just to reduce the debt level in Germany to 180% of GDP, it would require a confiscation by governments and banks of 11% of total household financial assets. This compares to a level of 113% in Ireland and 26% in the USA. The Eurozone 16 would need to steal $6.1 Trillion of household financial assets just to bring their debts down below 2x GDP. This does not include sundry bank bailouts which will be necessary in Italy and Spain, and most likely France. Nor does it include the unfunded liability 'gap' which is 5-8 x the size of every modern economy.

Never underestimate the desperation of the ruling plutocrats to take every last penny in savings and investment in order to preserve social order and their own power.