Angry mobs lower the German flag and draw swastikas in anti-EU demonstrations


They're robbing us, they want our savings, they want to humiliate us, to destroy our dignity - and all this for the EU and IMF," said 45-year-old Maro Pashali, one of hundreds of protesters who gathered outside the Cypriot parliament in Nicosia yesterday in protest at the country's bailout deal. Demonstrators showed their anger by climbing a pole outside the building to lower the German flag, while others brandished placards bearing a European Union insignia with the stars drawn in the shape of swastikas. Some called for a referendum - the right to decide on their future independently of "German diktats" - as young men with scarves hid their faces and chanted anti-German slogans.

As their politicians were attempting to renegotiate the EU/IMF deal to make the terms more favourable to smaller savers, many in the crowd were wondering whether there was not a better way.

Former Foreign Minister and politician Giorgos Lilikas, who attended the protest, told The Independent: "There was another solution which was to offer our natural resources in exchange for help from Europe. If we have to put our banks as a warranty, we don't need the Troika, we can do it on our own."

An arcane change to the way Social Security's annual Cost of Living Adjustments, or COLAs, are calculated may be part of a deficit reduction deal between President Barack Obama and Congress. The revision, known as the "chained CPI," could cut the size of Social Security recipients' benefits starting in 2014.

You could feel a financial pinch if COLAs get tweaked this way, especially if you're fortunate enough to live for decades in retirement.

The Chained CPI and the Deficit

Deficit cutters like the idea of switching to the chained CPI because it would save the government an estimated $200 billion or so over 10 years.

In addition to reducing the growth in Social Security, the new math also would slow spending increases for many other federal outlays linked to inflation, like veterans benefits and government salaries, and bring in additional tax revenue because tax brackets are adjusted for inflation annually.

Former Central Bank of Cyprus chief Anthanasios Orphanides was on Tom Keene's show on BloombergTV this morning.

In his interview, he goes off on the EU for its treatment of Cyprus, and says the European project is dying.

You can watch the full video here.

Below is a partial transcript provided to us by Bloomberg TV.

Orphanides on Cyprus bailout:

"We are witnessing historic times. What we are witnessing is the slow death of the European Project. We are in a situation that some European governments are essentially taking actions that are telling citizens of other member states that they are not equal under the law."

"What we have seen in the last few days is a very serious blunder by European governments that are essentially blackmailing the government of Cyprus to confiscate the money that belongs rightfully to depositors in the banking sector in Cyprus. It is not clear how this can affect in a positive matter the European project going forward."

Russian banks and companies exposed to Cyprus risk losing billions of dollars should the island's government default on its debt obligations, Moody's credit-rating agency said on Wednesday.

Cyprus is been negotiating with the European Union and Russia on a 17 billion euros aid package that would recapitalise its oversized banking sector, but also service debt and government expenses.

Euro zone finance ministers have pledged to agree a bailout for Cyprus by the end of March and have set a meeting for Friday, but there are still no details on financing the rescue attempt.

Moody's said there is a high probability of Cyprus defaulting, or at least the authorities being forced by the size of the debt to "pursue every avenue for debt reduction, including private-sector losses on Cypriot debt."

It is a bad day to have your money deposited in a bank in the Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus. And it may just mean some bad days ahead for the rest of us.

Early Saturday, the nation reached an agreement with international lenders for bailout help. Part of the agreement: Bank depositors with more than 100,000 euros ($131,000) in their accounts will take a 9.9 percent haircut. Even those with less in savings will see their accounts reduced by 6.75 percent. That's right: Anyone with money in a Cypriot bank will have significantly less money when the banks open for business Tuesday than they did on Friday. Cypriots have reacted with this perfectly rational reaction: lining up at ATM machines to try to get as much money out in the form of cash before the money they have in their accounts is reduced.

What makes this important for people who couldn't locate Cyprus on a map is this: It is one of the 17 nations using the euro currency, the fact that it's a lot closer to Beirut than to Paris notwithstanding. European officials have spent the past six years moving heaven and earth to ensure that no depositors with the continent's banks suffer a loss despite the financial strains the banks have been under.

Most dramatically, the Irish government in the fall of 2008 backstopped its banks, putting its public finances through a wringer. Even as the Greek economy has fallen into depression and Spanish bank losses on real estate have reached dangerous levels, the European Central Bank and the continent's government have ensured that bank deposits were safe. They have feared that if depositors in any country were forced to take losses, it would spark a destructive cascade of withdrawals across Europe.

So is Cyprus different?

The UK will compensate any British troops in Cyprus hit by plans to introduce a bank levy as part of a £9bn EU bailout, the chancellor has said.

British government workers would also be protected, George Osborne said.

Under the bailout, account holders in Cyprus with up to 100,000 euros would pay a one-off levy of 6.75%; higher deposits would suffer a 9.9% levy.

The move could affect many of the 3,000 UK military personnel in Cyprus, and up to an estimated 25,000 expatriates.

While attending a terrific symposium recently on the retirement challenges women face, I came away with a stark realization: Washington has a bull's-eye on every American's 401(k).

The Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement (known as WISER), a nonprofit dedicated to improve the long-term financial security of women, had brought together administration officials, the savviest Capitol Hill insiders and retirement analysts working at financial services firms and think tanks.

Ignoring the Retirement Crisis

Speaker after speaker described how so many Americans - women in particular - lack the financial resources needed to retire, what Sen. Tom Harkin, a Democrat from Iowa, called "one of the most underreported crises" in America. We heard scary statistics, including that 48 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 in savings.

Shortly after voters in Colorado and Washington State approved measures that legalized the recreational use of marijuana, President Obama told Barbara Walters that his Justice Department would not prosecute pot users in these states.

"We've got bigger fish to fry," Obama said.

Although the state measures defy federal law, it appears Barack Obama is giving each state a pass on this issue.

But, will Obama also respect states that pass legislation in defiance of federal law when it comes to firearms?

On March 12 and 14, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed both Sen. Charles Schumer's (D-NY) "Fix Gun Checks Act," which would criminalize all private firearm sales and Sen. Dianne Feinstein's (D-CA) "Assault Weapons Ban."

These bills have a long way to go before they become law - if they ever do - but states across the nation are introducing their own legislation to preemptively defeat any new federal gun laws.

Calling France a "sad" place led by an uninspired government where people are "fed up", actor Gerard Depardieu dealt his former country a healthy dose of criticism Saturday, but denied he left for tax reasons.

In an interview with local Belgian television channel Notele filmed on Saturday and to be uploaded onto the site www.notele.be, the 63-year-old star of "Cyrano de Bergerac" and "Green Card" observed that the problem with France is "especially the lack of energy".

"France is sad and I think the French are fed up. The lack of conviction... It seems that the government doesn't know how to do its job."

About French President Francois Hollande, he said: "It's his first time, he never held a ministerial post. He just had the Correze, which is in deficit," referring to the central in-the-sticks region where Hollande made his early political career.

Depardieu sparked bemused annoyment from the French and ire from politicians when he accepted President Vladimir Putin's offer of Russian citizenship and a new passport late last year in a move that was widely perceived to be a refusal to pay taxes.

The number is shocking and sobering. It is at least 10 times greater than most estimates cited in the US media, yet it is based on a scientific study of violent Iraqi deaths caused by the U.S.-led invasion of March 2003.

Remind visitors to your site of the awful human costs of continued war by posting the Iraqi Death Estimator on your website.