How would you feel if your bank, through no fault of yours, needed a bailout and to help pay for it, the government demanded you give up 10% of your deposits? Yeah, I thought so. Wall Street Journal: Depositors in Cypriot banks will be hit with a one-off tax on their savings, as part of a €10 billion ($12.96 billion) bailout for the Mediterranean island from the euro zone and the International Monetary Fund. The deal, announced early Saturday, marks the first time in the euro zone's five-year-old financial crisis that depositors in bloc's banks will lose money. Accounts with more than €100,000 will be taxed at 9.9%, those with less at 6.75%, raising an expected €5.8 billion for the near-bankrupt nation. "This decision should not be compared to the ideal, but to the very real possibility that much more money could have been lost in bankruptcy of the banking system or indeed of the country," Cypriot Finance Minister Michalis Sarris told reporters, looking...(Read Full Post)