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90 seconds at 9 am: Cyprus deal 'breaks taboos'; uninsured deposits at big risk; ugly Aust govt reshuffle; Aussie super at risk; no Unitary Plan deal; NZ$1 = US$0.834, TWI = 76.6

90 seconds at 9 am: Cyprus deal 'breaks taboos'; uninsured deposits at big risk; ugly Aust govt reshuffle; Aussie super at risk; no Unitary Plan deal; NZ$1 = US$0.834, TWI = 76.6
26th Mar 13, 8:41am by David Chaston

Here's my summary of the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am, including news the euro is tumbling today as the market gets to understand that with the Cyprus bailout, nobody is safe from EU regulator solutions.

Markets see the EU breaking taboos and is marking down the currency. Comments that the Cyprus solution is a template for future EU bailouts rattled as well. Those comments have since been withdrawn.

The 'final' deal is this. All deposits of €100,000 are safe. The second largest bank, Popular Bank of Cyprus, also known as Laiki, will be shut down. 

Deposits above €100,000, which under EU law are not guaranteed, will be frozen and used to resolve debts, and Laiki will be shut down with thousands of job losses. Holders of those larger accounts can expect to see very little of their funds. In return the ECB will now provide liquidity to the Cyprus central bank.

The costs to other troubled EU members is rising.

In Australia, Labor politics is getting very ugly, with ministers walking and a reshuffled front bench. One senior ex-minister is warning the the Government is planning a raid on Aussie superannuation in its next budget.

In Auckland, there is no agreement on the Unitary Plan details after a late night meeting between the mayor and Nick Smith. The sticking point is still over the right of affected homeowners to appeal Council plans.

The Council wants it overridden in law and 'get on with it', the Government wants the homeowner rights to remain. A working committee will try and find a way past this issue.

Later this morning we get data on the New Zealand trade balance for February. An unexpected outcome could shift the currency.

The kiwi dollar starts today slightly lower than yesterday at 83.4 USc, 79.9 AUc, but the TWI is up at 76.6 on a much weaker euro.

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14 Comments

by  @tony  |  26th Mar 13, 8:58am 1364241530

>> One senior ex-minister is warning the the Government is planning a raid on Aussie superannuation in its next budget.

Please fix the "warning" link as it doesnt go anywere... or post here...

Thx

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by  Andrewj  |  26th Mar 13, 9:08am 1364242093

Just fingers in the pie again, same old 

>>>

A BUDGET blowout of up to $107 billion in public servants' pension costs risks swamping the value of the Future Fund and potentially undermining the Gillard government's AAA credit rating.

But lower returns on relatively safe assets such as bonds make public servants' future pension payouts more expensive in today's money because bigger sums are needed now to offset the fixed future payouts.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/treasury/pensions-blow…

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by  Andrewj  |  26th Mar 13, 9:24am 1364243041

The best bit

 

 The NSW government's pension liabilities jumped almost 20 per cent or $6.4bn to $38.7bn this month. "The size of this valuation adjustment is due to record low interest rates," the state Treasury noted.

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by  Happy123  |  26th Mar 13, 9:21am 1364242893

Maybe I"m missing something but isn't it brutally unfair that big savers in Cypros are paying for the banks debts?  How are they justifying this?  Even the option of nationalising the banks and shifting the debt to the governments BS seems fairer. 

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by  Wolly  |  26th Mar 13, 10:29am 1364246987

Yes Happy123 you missed the point...the game has been about using the crisis to destroy a tax haven used by so many to avoid the thieving of capital by the criminals running the EU.

Goes to drive home the message to EU suckers...stay away from banks...keep your toilet paper currency under the bed....keep very little of it....buy gold....art....antiques....rare books and stamps...and barter barter barter.

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by  Christov  |  26th Mar 13, 9:43am 1364244181

Such is the price of Democracy as we know it Happy123....the people are begining to learn  the price of their democratic freedom comes at a cost.

I think you will find this Cypriot debacle will do more to undermine the belief in the freedoms democracy offers, as it would appear conclusively , you have a right to an opinion, you have little or no right to excecise that opinion when it may have a negative impact on ...Free Market Principals....or more correctly , those who are in control of the so called Free Market.

The old Socialist / Communist vanguards must be wringing their hands with glee about now.

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by  Andrewj  |  26th Mar 13, 9:56am 1364244961
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by  Christov  |  26th Mar 13, 10:17am 1364246264

Confidence indeed A.J....no doubt Eccles set the benchmark for finem respice institutionaly speaking.

Sometimes , just sometimes, you'd wish a near miss was a direct hit.....and Jesus save us all..............................not.

Or then maybe we should just teach our children from the get go the importance of finem respice in their lifetime and just give morality a miss altogether.

Thanks for the piece , fantastic read....although left  feeling somewhat defeated.

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by  iconoclast  |  26th Mar 13, 11:16am 1364249777

most revealing ..

The efforts of the Eccles brothers were a little less shifty than some of the other grand confidence men of the era, but the essence of the method is the same:

 

...just act as if everything is all right, just have a smile on their face, if they could .. and SMILE AND WAVE ....



Someone has learnt his lesson well

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by  scarfie  |  26th Mar 13, 11:14am 1364249657

boy that was a challenging read, but worth it.

 

I can't help but think that dwindling resources are interconnected with banking and subject to the same obfuscation.

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by  scarfie  |  26th Mar 13, 10:46am 1364247967

Isn't it just poetry how the Cyprus deal simply circumvented the elected officials. 

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by  Christov  |  26th Mar 13, 11:06am 1364249195

Not that it does the citizen any good scarfo but, it is a step in knowing who's in charge, as opposed who they may have thought was in charge.

 As I said , the democratic free market will come under more scrutiny from this event , than the collapse of Wall St....where the theft was and is by subterfuge, in this case it's the global test for a more in your face approach......

 Finally the ruling elite can say with absolute contempt..

So, just what are you gonna do about it ...peasant !

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by  scarfie  |  26th Mar 13, 11:12am 1364249548

Well no one that graces these pages can say they weren't warned, the trouble is that it is only a minority of us that have conceived these sorts of actions. So the question become does this in your face test get the attention of some of the naysayers? I don't think the ordinary guy, or peasant as you so aptly put it, has chance to get their head around this, nor is inclined to do so.

 

The rightful context for this is "escalation". The question in regards that is will it stop there?

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