For years experts have warned Americans how budget bill after budget bill has moved through Congress and signed by the President which would allow banks to simply confiscate depositors' money. This has happened in other countries across the globe, most notably in Cyprus, Greece and we are being warned again that the day is now rapidly approaching where bail-ins will be a fact of life right here in the USA.
In spring of 2013 the failing European Bank of Cyprus performed a bail-in that required depositors to help save the bank by foregoing a large portion of the money they had deposited in the bank. In return for their forbearance, depositors were given equity shares in the failing bank.
Customers who deposit money in banks are lending that money to the bank. Depositors are in effect, unsecured creditors. If the bank fails, depositors get in line with other unsecured creditors to see how many cents on the dollar, if any, they can retrieve.
Which brings us to the the passage of the 2015 federal budget bill, where lawmakers repealed a key part of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, which protected depositors savings, fully explained at TruthDig here.
In a nutshell, the budget provision would allow banks to use the savings accounts of Americans to speculate in the markets on behalf of hedge funds, companies and the rich. Specifically, the banks would use customer savings to help clients make bets on derivatives, the technical financial instruments that were at the center of the financial crisis. There’s no benefit to this rule to anyone in America who has less than, say, $5m in the bank.....
Surprise, Surprise!! Did you know that you don't own your bank deposits anymore???
In the 2008 financial meltdown, the US government "bailed-out"the banks, but with the repeal of the protections offered to depositors, the next financial meltdown will leave depositors' funds, savings, pensions..... holding the bag.
How close is that meltdown? Well Rob Kirby who is a gold and derivatives expert and attorney, author and researcher Ellen Brown, explain in the two videos below, that it is closer than you think.
Via USAWatchdog, where Greg Hunter interviewed My. Kirby, he points to the oil prices being cut in half in a matter of months, stating "I look at what is transpiring in the crude oil market as yet another engineered or financial trickery on the part of the financial elites. . . . What this breakdown in the crude oil price is going to spawn another financial crisis. It will be tied to the junk debt that has been issued to finance the shale oil plays in North America. It is reported to be in the area of half a trillion dollars worth of junk debt that is held largely on the books of large financial institutions in the western world. When these bonds start to fail, they will jeopardize the future of these financial institutions. I do believe that will be the signal for the Fed to come riding to the rescue with QE4. I also think QE4 is likely going to be accompanied by bank bail-ins because we all know all western world countries have adopted bail-in legislation in their most recent budgets. The financial elites are engineering the excuse for their next round of money printing . . . and they will be confiscating money out of savings accounts and pension accounts. That’s what I think is coming in the very near future."
What can we expect as a warning? Nothing...... let us revisit the timeline of how it happened in Cyprus, via Zero Hedge :
• March 16 2013: Cyprus announces the terms of its bail-in: a 6.75% confiscation of accounts under €100,000 and 9.9% for accounts larger than €100,000… a bank holiday is announced. • March 17 2013: emergency session of Parliament to vote on bailout/bail-in is postponed. • March 18 2013: Bank holiday extended until March 21 2013. • March 19 2013: Cyprus parliament rejects bail-in bill. • March 20 2013: Bank holiday extended until March 26 2013. • March 24 2013: Cash limits of €100 in withdrawals begin for largest banks in Cyprus. • March 25 2013: Bail-in deal agreed upon. Those depositors with over €100,000 either lose 40% of their money (Bank of Cyprus) or lose 60% (Laiki).
That is right, you will go to bed one night, wake up to find the bank is closed on a "bank holiday", ATM's will not allow you to withdraw cash. An announcement will go out that you, the taxpayer, will have money withdrawn from YOUR account before the banks reopen and what is left is yours... until the next time.
As Financial analyst Jim Sinclair was quoted as saying in 2013, when explaining that banks legally own the depositors’ funds as soon as they are put in the bank, he stated "Our money becomes the bank’s, and we become unsecured creditors holding IOUs or promises to pay."
It is also worth remembering that bail-ins are not the only danger to your money, with the recent slew of "hacks" and the massive attacks hitting the US every single day, most of which coming from China, as shown by Norse, the entire banking system can be shut down overnight and every cent you think you "own" can be gone in a heartbeat.
