Cartoon of the day

Special mention

Lessons from Cyprus?

Everybody’s trying to wrap their heads around the crisis in Cyprus—figuring out what went wrong (what could possibly go wrong with massive round-tripping of Russian money and the purchase of Greek debt?) and what lessons can be learned (after not a single Cypriot legislator voted for the troika’s bailout plan).

But what if there’s another lesson here? We’ve now learned that it’s possible, at least as a matter of official European policy, to confiscate private assets in order to solve the social problems created by a money-grabbing elite (in this case, a tiny group of money-launderers and large foreign depositors).

I can think of lots of other private assets, whose owners have created social problems—and not only in Cyprus—that could be confiscated.

Just sayin’. . .

Cartoon of the day

Special mention

Protest of the day

Cypriots are protesting the decision by the European Union and their government to devise a 10-billion-euro ($13 billion) bailout that will impose an unprecedented levy on all bank deposits.

They demonstrated their anger in the southern city of Limassol—during the annual carnival with a float of a papier mâché statue caricaturing German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Cyprus President Nikos Anastasiadis, and by parking a bulldozer in front of a bank.

Chart of the day

source [pdf]

European unemployment continues at record levels.

The euro area seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 11.6 percent in September 2012, up from 11.5 percent in August. The European Union unemployment rate was 10.6 percent in September 2012, stable compared with August. In both zones, rates have risen significantly compared with September 2011, when they were 10.3 percent and 9.8 percent respectively.

What this means if that 25.751 million men and women in the Union, of whom 18.490 million are in the euro area, were unemployed in September 2012. Compared with August 2012, the number of persons unemployed increased by 169,000 in the Union and by 146,000 in the euro area. Compared with September 2011, unemployment rose by 2.145 million in the Union and by 2.174 million in the euro area.

Compared with a year ago, the highest increases were registered in Greece (17.8 percent to 25.1 percent between July 2011 and July 2012), Cyprus (8.5 percent to 12.2 percent), Spain (22.4 percent to 25.8 percent) and Portugal (13.1 percent to 15.7 percent).

Meanwhile, in all of its financial wisdom, the European Central Bank continues to be concerned about inflation, attempting to keep the rate at or near 2 percent. The Euro area annual inflation [pdf] is expected to be 2.5 percent in October, down from 2.6 percent in September.