Deposits over €100K at the Bank of Cyprus will be taxed at 62.5%, sources tell Reuters. The figure is far greater than officials originally indicated. Customers will get 37.5% of their deposits over the €100K threshold in bank shares while the remainder of their cash "may never be paid back."[View news story]
No, there is a lot of room between the Planet of the Apes and the shifting of respect for the legal system.
I'd put forth that we've already seen the shifting start. Bondholders at GM were passed over for political payoffs. Contract law is clear and it wasn't followed.
Likewise bondholders (and shareholders) at the banks should have been wiped out before any government money was used to prop them up.
I don't subscribe to keeping all your cash and gold and silver under your mattress. But I do subscribe for realizing the future threats and taking practical steps to make it less easy for the government to take from me. Having your cash spread across accounts that are less than the FDIC insurance level is now just common sense.
And finally, should we ever hit the Planet of the Apes scenario I'd prefer to have gold and silver than not. The real danger will be to those closest to cities. Food would become scarce and folks would move out from the city to areas they viewed as affluent. However I hope I never have to live through that. But I do think its unfortunately reasonable to prepare for government efforts to confiscate more and more of the private wealth that exists in the USA.
Deposits over €100K at the Bank of Cyprus will be taxed at 62.5%, sources tell Reuters. The figure is far greater than officials originally indicated. Customers will get 37.5% of their deposits over the €100K threshold in bank shares while the remainder of their cash "may never be paid back."[View news story]
So it could really be taxed at 100% depending on how this new bank turns out.
This should be a message to people that they need to pay attention to their own finances. The FDIC insurance is for 250K. If you've got more than that in an account you need to get it down to 200 and more the rest to another bank - even if it means opening several accounts.
The other move folks may want to consider is to have shares in their long term holdings issued directly to them as opposed to sitting in their brokerage account. Eventually, a government is going to go after easily accessible wealth - and they will want to count all financial assets the institution holds. Specifically, Etrade is a firm with a lot of debt - situation is better than a few years ago but still not great. I'm sure there are others.
As a larger percentage of people come to rely on government - whether its direct employment or "benefits" - they will readily vote to confiscate your assets for their own gain. The bankers will readily do it if it means they avoid jail and hold on to their jobs. The politicians will do it to soften the blow to anyone that bribes them, er I mean gives them campaign contributions (and 300K jobs to their wives, sons, daughters, brother-in-laws, etc).
I feel bad for the many Cyprus small businessmen that probably held accounts with several hundred thousand dollars of their personal savings in banks where they had LOC. Not only are they losing a large percentage of their life's work, they will probably see their LOCs decreased going forward.
But for those outside Cyprus, hopefully this will serve as a very loud reminder to be vigilant.
The Facts Are In - MLPs Work Great In IRAs [View article]
Wow, tough reading through all of this. I've posted something similar to this in the past in regards to MLP's in IRA's.
1. Contact your brokerage firm and ask what their SOP is in regards to UBTI in IRA's. 2. As a general rule, if your investing small amounts in a particular MLP you are unlikely to incur a UBTI of greater than $1000. Your MLP would have to do something like sell a headquarter building for a $300 million gain before you'd get impacted. If you've inherited an IRA or are rolling over a large 401K and considering the investment, then spending the money to meet with a good tax lawyer with MLP experience is the way to go prior to investing. 3. UBTI taxes are just taxes. If your truly concerned just make sure you have some available cash in your IRA that can be used to pay the taxes should they materialize. 4. Make the best investment you can - rarely will tax considerations make a poor investment into a good one!
Just as an aside - in taxable accounts - one of the main reasons for the step-up provision when you die is to basically erase all your distributions - ie your hiers don't get hit with the income taxes on all your previous distributions.
Just as people here disagree you'll find tax lawyers, accountants, etc that disagree. Whatever you do - be consistent. Don't change how you handle reporting distributions from year to year just because one year you have to pay some taxes. Thats how you'll end up in serious trouble. Pay attention to asset sales by your MLP's - thats when you can see heavier taxes flow through to you if they are sold at a profit.
Personally, I think folks are making some things too difficult. Good luck.
3 Small REITs, One Large Opportunity [View article]
I'd be very cautious in regards to these large firms moving into the single family rental space.
In three-four years I think we'll find out that fancy MBA's and their spreadsheets aren't a match for the local small investor. Its easy to buy and get the initial rental. Its not so easy to determine when to replace the roof, find a plumber to fix a leaky pipe, collect the rent, inspect the property, evict nonpayers, do the small fixes between rentals, etc, etc.
Local knowledge is 50% of the determination of success or failure in this business. Any large enterprise is going to need to build from the ground up - ie maintenance staff, sales staff, marketing teams. About the only real advantage I can see is that I assume the larger firms have in house legal staffs. Single family versus Multi Family are two entirely different games and is often more about quality (both in terms of property, location, and renters) than quantity.
It Can Happen Here: The Confiscation Scheme Planned For U.S. And U.K. Depositors [View article]
ABC News cuts away for breaking news........
The President of the United States.........Good Evening........We all know we have a large debt and rising income inequality. I've decided that this qualifies as a national security threat. Since the Republicans in Congress won't cooperate, I've consulted with my Attorney General and he assures me I can unilaterally take action.
I've decided that the millionaires and billionaires must pay their fair share!!!!! If you have more than 250K in wealth, you didn't earn that. We all know that lots of people are responsible for your wealth. So tomorrow we're going to seize all wealth over 250k and use half of it to fund my spending initiatives that Congress won't fund - and the other half will be distributed to those that voted for me - er I mean to those that just need one more government program to get ahead in life. And I don't know how but this will also strengthen the middle class.
Some will say that this isn't constitutional. Some will say that this isn't fair. But if we don't do this then children will be hungry, children will die, the elderly will be without heat - and we are the kind of country that won't stand by while those things happen. And this will strengthen the middle class.
Now that we've done this we can start to take a fair and balanced approach to how we will expand our government. To that end I've proposed to limit two agencies to 5% spending increases next year instead of 20% increases and we will raise taxes on the "rich" to 60%. This will still be 20% lower than France so no one can say I'm a socialist!!!
Now I'll allow you to get back to watching Housewives or Dancing.
Qiwi, Russia's answer to PayPal, has filed for a $100M IPO under the symbol QIWI. Qiwi's operations encompass an online payments unit (Visa Qiwi Wallet) that claims 11.4M virtual wallets, and an offline payments business (Qiwi Distribution) that processes transactions via 120K kiosks and 49K terminals. 2012 revenue totaled $293M (+9% Y/Y), and net income $27M. Qiwi Wallet's payment volume rose 132% to $4.98B, while Qiwi Distribution's rose 14% to $15.2B. (S-1) [View news story]
Anyone know what they charge in comparison to paypal??
U.S. oil, natural gas and coal industries are bracing for the release of new standards that could derail, postpone or at least create new legal hurdles for some of the country's largest planned energy projects, including interstate pipelines, LNG export facilities and refineries. The new standards likely will advise companies to consider the effects a project would have on climate change, such as emissions from exports. [View news story]
Emissions from exports?
We could use another 10 sequesters, as obviously we still have armies of idiot bureaucrats sitting around doing absolutely nothing that is productive.
JPMorgan (JPM -1.8%) drags on the Dow (now down just 30 points) as the Feds are investigating whether the bank was more or less complicit with Bernie Madoff. Meanwhile, Madoff pens a letter from the clink saying banks he dealt with had to have known about his Ponzi scheme. The NYT adds it up and finds 8 federal agencies are investigating the Bank of Dimon. [View news story]
Misery loves company.
Have no idea what JPM has or hasn't done but what Madoff says about them should count for zero.
J.C. Penney's (JCP -1.1%) new "mark-up to mark-down" tactic may be straight from Retail 101 but it's a tough row to hoe for a company suffering +20% drops in sales, according to analysts. Is JCP making the transition smoothly? Eyes in the street note that items in stores are "awkwardly" displaying stickers over the older prices in an effort to cover them up. [View news story]
Seriously??
I haven't run any retail operation larger than my own small businesses and I could have done a better job for JCP!
At our closest JCP there is still no "store within a store" or whatever this big thing is supposed to be. Just the same tired layout that they've had for the past 20+ years. Staff that is mediocre at best and "disinterested" would probably be the right description.
I don't see how this guy can still be the CEO. I understand saying your totally changing your strategy and things will hurt for a while - ok - but then after you hurt for a while you undo the whole thing??? For what purpose?
Get rid of him and hire someone that actually knows clothes retailing and pray.
Reading's 2012 10-K Highlights Continued Value Creation [View article]
Andrew, Saw an article on RDI and assumed you must have written it!
Why didn't they sell the properties and distribute the cash to shareholders? I haven't followed anything since last year - but thats exactly what I said would happen. Management doesn't seem interested in shareholders at all.
Outrageous CEO pay. Turning down deals that could distribute $4+ to each share. It appears the reason for the valuation is simply the obvious misalignment between shareholder's best interests and the CEO's best interests.
You guys should be looking for a real estate investment fund to jump in and clear out the board and immediately undertake "selling of non-core assets" or something along those lines - and distribute the cash!!
A federal judge is due to hear closing arguments today about whether Stockton in California should be allowed to file for bankruptcy protection. The main is issue is whether the city can continue paying into the Calpers pension fund while forcing losses on bondholders. The case is being widely watched, with Alabama's Jefferson County and California's San Bernardino also considering breaking with the long-standing practice of meeting obligations to bondholders. [View news story]
Seems to me both parties should be getting a haircut. Bond holders shouldn't have loaned the money and the bureaucrats pay and pension are a large reason the money isn't being repaid.
If I were the judge the pension payments would be a no-go but then the city should be allowed to declare BK - both to force creditors to renegotiate the loans and to totally renegotiate public employee pay and benefits.
YPF signs a preliminary shale agreement with Dow Chemical (DOW) towards a 50-50 JV for the development of the El Orejano block in Argentina's Neuquen province, one of the first areas to boast discoveries in the Vaca Muerta formation. YPF already partners with Dow in downstream ventures including Argentina's Bahia Blanca petrochemical complex. [View news story]
Oh, but I thought DOW was really really interested in American Manufacturing????? But I guess where cheaper natural resources can be found thats where the investment goes??????
Should show how pathetic their campaign against LNG exports from the US really is.
Cypriots don't necessarily have to suffer greatly.
The parliament should vote to immediately leave the Euro once all the bank deposits are shifted to the "good bank", etc.
They can then devalue the new currency to increase their tourism businesses to help absorb the lost financial services businesses. And it will effectively drastically cut their debt to the ECB.
This is in essence a domino falling from the Greek debt problem. My understanding is that these banks held large amounts of Greek debt and the main reason they are insolvent is that this debt has been written down several times.
People in other EU countries will pay much closer attention to the insurance limits and will open additional bank accounts when needed. People in Slovenia should begin opening Swiss bank accounts, and those EU states not yet in the Euro should halt all plans to join.
Cyprus needs its own currency and they need it quickly.
More on Cyprus: EU finance ministers approve deal. Bloomberg says deposits above €100K at Bank of Cyprus could incur losses up to 40% while deposits above the €100K threshold at Cyprus Popular Bank (Laiki) may be wiped out entirely. Deal may not need to be approved by the Cypriot parliament. [View news story]
Tack is correct. As long as the bondholders and shareholders are wiped out before the depositors then thats exactly what should take place. The government should then step in to insure the 100K euros that they promised.
Taking any amount of the insured guarantee would be theft.
What this should be is a warning to folks that they have to take responsibility for their own finances and pay attention to what is going on with their funds.
Miles Kimball makes the case for a third term for Ben Bernanke: He “has developed an unparalleled skill in explaining and defending controversial monetary policy measures to Congress and to the public. The most important ways in which U.S. monetary policy has fallen short in the last few years are because of the limits Congress has implicitly and explicitly placed on the Fed.” [View news story]
dnorm,
It is an investment site. And on a macro level what will lead to the greater creation of wealth - freedom and liberty Or government control and repression?
How much money would it take for you to agree to allow your children and grandchildren to live their lives without freedom and liberty?
My answer is there is no amount of money you can bribe me with to give up their freedom and liberty.
Comparing whether to invest in apples or oranges is missing the point if the ground and water that sustains both is contaminated and polluted to the point of threatening all the trees existance.
Deposits over €100K at the Bank of Cyprus will be taxed at 62.5%, sources tell Reuters. The figure is far greater than officials originally indicated. Customers will get 37.5% of their deposits over the €100K threshold in bank shares while the remainder of their cash "may never be paid back." [View news story]
I'd put forth that we've already seen the shifting start. Bondholders at GM were passed over for political payoffs. Contract law is clear and it wasn't followed.
Likewise bondholders (and shareholders) at the banks should have been wiped out before any government money was used to prop them up.
I don't subscribe to keeping all your cash and gold and silver under your mattress. But I do subscribe for realizing the future threats and taking practical steps to make it less easy for the government to take from me. Having your cash spread across accounts that are less than the FDIC insurance level is now just common sense.
And finally, should we ever hit the Planet of the Apes scenario I'd prefer to have gold and silver than not. The real danger will be to those closest to cities. Food would become scarce and folks would move out from the city to areas they viewed as affluent. However I hope I never have to live through that. But I do think its unfortunately reasonable to prepare for government efforts to confiscate more and more of the private wealth that exists in the USA.
Deposits over €100K at the Bank of Cyprus will be taxed at 62.5%, sources tell Reuters. The figure is far greater than officials originally indicated. Customers will get 37.5% of their deposits over the €100K threshold in bank shares while the remainder of their cash "may never be paid back." [View news story]
This should be a message to people that they need to pay attention to their own finances. The FDIC insurance is for 250K. If you've got more than that in an account you need to get it down to 200 and more the rest to another bank - even if it means opening several accounts.
The other move folks may want to consider is to have shares in their long term holdings issued directly to them as opposed to sitting in their brokerage account. Eventually, a government is going to go after easily accessible wealth - and they will want to count all financial assets the institution holds. Specifically, Etrade is a firm with a lot of debt - situation is better than a few years ago but still not great. I'm sure there are others.
As a larger percentage of people come to rely on government - whether its direct employment or "benefits" - they will readily vote to confiscate your assets for their own gain. The bankers will readily do it if it means they avoid jail and hold on to their jobs. The politicians will do it to soften the blow to anyone that bribes them, er I mean gives them campaign contributions (and 300K jobs to their wives, sons, daughters, brother-in-laws, etc).
I feel bad for the many Cyprus small businessmen that probably held accounts with several hundred thousand dollars of their personal savings in banks where they had LOC. Not only are they losing a large percentage of their life's work, they will probably see their LOCs decreased going forward.
But for those outside Cyprus, hopefully this will serve as a very loud reminder to be vigilant.
The Facts Are In - MLPs Work Great In IRAs [View article]
1. Contact your brokerage firm and ask what their SOP is in regards to UBTI in IRA's.
2. As a general rule, if your investing small amounts in a particular MLP you are unlikely to incur a UBTI of greater than $1000. Your MLP would have to do something like sell a headquarter building for a $300 million gain before you'd get impacted. If you've inherited an IRA or are rolling over a large 401K and considering the investment, then spending the money to meet with a good tax lawyer with MLP experience is the way to go prior to investing.
3. UBTI taxes are just taxes. If your truly concerned just make sure you have some available cash in your IRA that can be used to pay the taxes should they materialize.
4. Make the best investment you can - rarely will tax considerations make a poor investment into a good one!
Just as an aside - in taxable accounts - one of the main reasons for the step-up provision when you die is to basically erase all your distributions - ie your hiers don't get hit with the income taxes on all your previous distributions.
Just as people here disagree you'll find tax lawyers, accountants, etc that disagree. Whatever you do - be consistent. Don't change how you handle reporting distributions from year to year just because one year you have to pay some taxes. Thats how you'll end up in serious trouble. Pay attention to asset sales by your MLP's - thats when you can see heavier taxes flow through to you if they are sold at a profit.
Personally, I think folks are making some things too difficult. Good luck.
3 Small REITs, One Large Opportunity [View article]
In three-four years I think we'll find out that fancy MBA's and their spreadsheets aren't a match for the local small investor. Its easy to buy and get the initial rental. Its not so easy to determine when to replace the roof, find a plumber to fix a leaky pipe, collect the rent, inspect the property, evict nonpayers, do the small fixes between rentals, etc, etc.
Local knowledge is 50% of the determination of success or failure in this business. Any large enterprise is going to need to build from the ground up - ie maintenance staff, sales staff, marketing teams. About the only real advantage I can see is that I assume the larger firms have in house legal staffs. Single family versus Multi Family are two entirely different games and is often more about quality (both in terms of property, location, and renters) than quantity.
It Can Happen Here: The Confiscation Scheme Planned For U.S. And U.K. Depositors [View article]
The President of the United States.........Good Evening........We all know we have a large debt and rising income inequality. I've decided that this qualifies as a national security threat. Since the Republicans in Congress won't cooperate, I've consulted with my Attorney General and he assures me I can unilaterally take action.
I've decided that the millionaires and billionaires must pay their fair share!!!!! If you have more than 250K in wealth, you didn't earn that. We all know that lots of people are responsible for your wealth. So tomorrow we're going to seize all wealth over 250k and use half of it to fund my spending initiatives that Congress won't fund - and the other half will be distributed to those that voted for me - er I mean to those that just need one more government program to get ahead in life. And I don't know how but this will also strengthen the middle class.
Some will say that this isn't constitutional. Some will say that this isn't fair. But if we don't do this then children will be hungry, children will die, the elderly will be without heat - and we are the kind of country that won't stand by while those things happen. And this will strengthen the middle class.
Now that we've done this we can start to take a fair and balanced approach to how we will expand our government. To that end I've proposed to limit two agencies to 5% spending increases next year instead of 20% increases and we will raise taxes on the "rich" to 60%. This will still be 20% lower than France so no one can say I'm a socialist!!!
Now I'll allow you to get back to watching Housewives or Dancing.
Your President Barack Obama!
Don't need to worry about FDIC rules!!!!
Qiwi, Russia's answer to PayPal, has filed for a $100M IPO under the symbol QIWI. Qiwi's operations encompass an online payments unit (Visa Qiwi Wallet) that claims 11.4M virtual wallets, and an offline payments business (Qiwi Distribution) that processes transactions via 120K kiosks and 49K terminals. 2012 revenue totaled $293M (+9% Y/Y), and net income $27M. Qiwi Wallet's payment volume rose 132% to $4.98B, while Qiwi Distribution's rose 14% to $15.2B. (S-1) [View news story]
U.S. oil, natural gas and coal industries are bracing for the release of new standards that could derail, postpone or at least create new legal hurdles for some of the country's largest planned energy projects, including interstate pipelines, LNG export facilities and refineries. The new standards likely will advise companies to consider the effects a project would have on climate change, such as emissions from exports. [View news story]
We could use another 10 sequesters, as obviously we still have armies of idiot bureaucrats sitting around doing absolutely nothing that is productive.
JPMorgan (JPM -1.8%) drags on the Dow (now down just 30 points) as the Feds are investigating whether the bank was more or less complicit with Bernie Madoff. Meanwhile, Madoff pens a letter from the clink saying banks he dealt with had to have known about his Ponzi scheme. The NYT adds it up and finds 8 federal agencies are investigating the Bank of Dimon. [View news story]
Have no idea what JPM has or hasn't done but what Madoff says about them should count for zero.
J.C. Penney's (JCP -1.1%) new "mark-up to mark-down" tactic may be straight from Retail 101 but it's a tough row to hoe for a company suffering +20% drops in sales, according to analysts. Is JCP making the transition smoothly? Eyes in the street note that items in stores are "awkwardly" displaying stickers over the older prices in an effort to cover them up. [View news story]
I haven't run any retail operation larger than my own small businesses and I could have done a better job for JCP!
At our closest JCP there is still no "store within a store" or whatever this big thing is supposed to be. Just the same tired layout that they've had for the past 20+ years. Staff that is mediocre at best and "disinterested" would probably be the right description.
I don't see how this guy can still be the CEO. I understand saying your totally changing your strategy and things will hurt for a while - ok - but then after you hurt for a while you undo the whole thing??? For what purpose?
Get rid of him and hire someone that actually knows clothes retailing and pray.
Reading's 2012 10-K Highlights Continued Value Creation [View article]
Saw an article on RDI and assumed you must have written it!
Why didn't they sell the properties and distribute the cash to shareholders? I haven't followed anything since last year - but thats exactly what I said would happen. Management doesn't seem interested in shareholders at all.
Outrageous CEO pay. Turning down deals that could distribute $4+ to each share. It appears the reason for the valuation is simply the obvious misalignment between shareholder's best interests and the CEO's best interests.
You guys should be looking for a real estate investment fund to jump in and clear out the board and immediately undertake "selling of non-core assets" or something along those lines - and distribute the cash!!
A federal judge is due to hear closing arguments today about whether Stockton in California should be allowed to file for bankruptcy protection. The main is issue is whether the city can continue paying into the Calpers pension fund while forcing losses on bondholders. The case is being widely watched, with Alabama's Jefferson County and California's San Bernardino also considering breaking with the long-standing practice of meeting obligations to bondholders. [View news story]
If I were the judge the pension payments would be a no-go but then the city should be allowed to declare BK - both to force creditors to renegotiate the loans and to totally renegotiate public employee pay and benefits.
YPF signs a preliminary shale agreement with Dow Chemical (DOW) towards a 50-50 JV for the development of the El Orejano block in Argentina's Neuquen province, one of the first areas to boast discoveries in the Vaca Muerta formation. YPF already partners with Dow in downstream ventures including Argentina's Bahia Blanca petrochemical complex. [View news story]
Should show how pathetic their campaign against LNG exports from the US really is.
Cyprus: It's Not Over Yet [View article]
The parliament should vote to immediately leave the Euro once all the bank deposits are shifted to the "good bank", etc.
They can then devalue the new currency to increase their tourism businesses to help absorb the lost financial services businesses. And it will effectively drastically cut their debt to the ECB.
This is in essence a domino falling from the Greek debt problem. My understanding is that these banks held large amounts of Greek debt and the main reason they are insolvent is that this debt has been written down several times.
People in other EU countries will pay much closer attention to the insurance limits and will open additional bank accounts when needed. People in Slovenia should begin opening Swiss bank accounts, and those EU states not yet in the Euro should halt all plans to join.
Cyprus needs its own currency and they need it quickly.
More on Cyprus: EU finance ministers approve deal. Bloomberg says deposits above €100K at Bank of Cyprus could incur losses up to 40% while deposits above the €100K threshold at Cyprus Popular Bank (Laiki) may be wiped out entirely. Deal may not need to be approved by the Cypriot parliament.
[View news story]
Taking any amount of the insured guarantee would be theft.
What this should be is a warning to folks that they have to take responsibility for their own finances and pay attention to what is going on with their funds.
Miles Kimball makes the case for a third term for Ben Bernanke: He “has developed an unparalleled skill in explaining and defending controversial monetary policy measures to Congress and to the public. The most important ways in which U.S. monetary policy has fallen short in the last few years are because of the limits Congress has implicitly and explicitly placed on the Fed.” [View news story]
It is an investment site. And on a macro level what will lead to the greater creation of wealth - freedom and liberty Or government control and repression?
How much money would it take for you to agree to allow your children and grandchildren to live their lives without freedom and liberty?
My answer is there is no amount of money you can bribe me with to give up their freedom and liberty.
Comparing whether to invest in apples or oranges is missing the point if the ground and water that sustains both is contaminated and polluted to the point of threatening all the trees existance.