Greg Pytel: I told you so... with a mafia twist

It may be a bit self indulging to write all the time "I told you so. I told you so many years ago". But what's the choice? The continued economic downturn in the UK is not surprising at all. At present the economy is managed which ensures that dire straights will continue. So no one should be surprised: simply await more bad news to come. The politicians' rhetoric about growth, prosperity, etc. can only be met with an ironic smirk. It looks they treat people if they were silly and would not see the obvious. Some even mainstream pundits have been arguing (privately) whether it is correct to treat the politicians as either devious or stupid. Or maybe there is a third choice? Whatever the answer is it does not change the real situation.

Readers of "The largest heist in history" would remember that the financial mess which resulted from the collapse of a giant global pyramid scheme was engineered in order to funnel the money out the economies to private individuals. Governments bail outs, financial stimuli, generating massive public debt, quantitative easing, and so on - all in direct contravention with free market principles, common sense and indeed many existing laws (unlawful subsidies to the industry, anti-competitive behaviour, etc) - are reaching the end of their practical capacity. Every financial pyramid has its limit. Now, after investments, endowments, pensions have been plundered, the time came for private savings and deposits. What happened in Cyprus was not a mess or a misjudgement. Cyprus, being a small island, is a test case. Firstly it is a tiny economy so any unpredicted overreaction can be contained. Secondly it is an island so things cannot spread physically easily.

Telling people that they can lose their deposits, even possibly below guaranteed amount (100,000 euros), which later was retracted, had not been a mistake. Firstly people realised and got used to the idea that such thing was no longer unthinkable. Secondly, by hitting deposits above 100,000 euros with up to 40% (or even maybe up to 60%) tax, it was made clear that such hit can be very hard indeed. Not some 6.75% or 9.9% as originally mooted: so now it is matter for the 'financial markets' to extend their target, below 100,000 euros. It is indeed a very primitive piece of social engineering and coaching people for the forthcoming loss. It is preparing psychologically all countries in Europe for the next step of the largest heist in history: direct and hard targeting of people's deposits.

There is also a rather ironic twist in the events in Cyprus. It has been widely reported that many billions of euros held in banks in Cyprus came from all sorts of dodgy businesses (Russia?). There is even a whispering subliminal propaganda designed to make it easier to accept this new phase of the largest heist in history. The message is that there is nothing wrong in stealing money from the thieves. Technically what happened there was that the billions of euros in cash deposited in Cyprus was used to redeem for a lot of toxic waste of the financial institutions (it is called 'making investments' in a financial language, with depositors cash). So, as expected, those who had cash ended up with nothing and those who held (and are still generating) zillions of toxic waste, got another tranche of their heist. The largest heist in history continues.

If it is true, as it is widely rumoured, that many billions of euros of mafia money have been kept in Cyprus and now something like 40% or even 60% are going to be lost, one could wonder whether European politicians, central bankers, who drive this process, e.g. finance ministers, or some other decision makers, even lower down the chain, are going to sleep comfortably. Or are they going to think more about their own and their families safety? Is mafia going to accept such multibillion euros loss? Or would they plan to teach a lesson in order to get their money back, to get a compensation for the current 'inconvenience' and mess and to make sure such a thing is unthinkable in the future. Mafia starts wars when there is big money at stake. And in Cyprus some powerful groups lost billions of euros. Therefore we can also look forward to listen to some interesting news. Don't be surprised. Despite being a mere speculation. This is as predictable - and even possibly engineered on purpose - as the current financial mess.