It is two days before the official start of Spring and it is snowing in DC. I was daydreaming about warm places and getting rid of this lingering winter. Then reality intruded.
The nice people on the BBC told me the number of dead pigs floating in the Huangpu river now exceeds 9,000. The river features Shanghai’s lovely art deco Colonial Bund on one side, with the science fiction architecture of China’s future on the other. It also provides the drinking water for the megalopolis.
I don’t know what to make of that, any more than I understand what is happening on the lovely island of Cyprus. Why do these mysteries swirl through a snowy Washington morning?
Both places were warm when I was there, and I enjoyed my only visits to both. I seriously doubt that I will be back to either, for deceased animal reasons and doubts on the integrity of the system in China, and certain financial apprehension about the Eurozone.
Certainly mysterious and bustling Shanghai is no longer on the priority list, not while what is floating down the river continues to do so.
Cyprus has a run on the banks this morning, and the ATMs are empty becuase people are tyring to get their money out.
The island has particularly poignant memories memories for me. It is a surreal and sunny little place. It has a heritage of Crusaders and Knights Templars and graceful architecture from the Venetian Empire. Then there are the Sovereign Base Areas (SBAs) which are still are still very British, and hence the supportive environment for the 60,000 Brit ExPat community.
(The interior of a Nicosea Car Dealership, untouched since 1974 in the buffer zone. Photo UN.)
There is a strange line of demarcation between the two communities, Greek and Turk, that marks the high (or low) watermark of the Turkish invasion in 1974, and there are still eerie parts of Nicosea which is split by the green line and in no-man’s land now.
It is very emotional on both sides of the Green Line. We were having a beer in a very pleasant cafe overlooking the ocean- and Syria, 90 miles away, and a Turkish Patrol boat with a very large National Ensign kept making runs off the beach to ensure that everyone knew the dispute was still very real.
The idea that the plucky Greek Cypriots managed to turn their island into an offshore banking haven and got overextended- like Ireland- is no surprise.
There is a run on the banks there this morning. The Cypriots are having their version of the Big Short, and the government announced that they were confiscating 10% of existing deposits in the banks.
Whoa. Run on the banks, and they government went after it for the same reason bank-robber Willie Sutton picked his targets. He famously replied to an interviewer, when asked why he stuck up financial institutions: “That is where the money is.”
There is a whole lot of foreign offshore money there, and that is why they reached out to grab it.
Is it going to start a wave of pressure against the tottering banking systems in the other vulnerable Eurozone economies? Maybe not. But this is the first time a central government has stepped in to confiscate the assets of the people.
They will be watching this in Washington, you better believe it. Since early in 2010, the U.S. Treasury and Labor departments jointly announced they were seeking public comment on changes to employer-sponsored 401(k) plans and individual retirement accounts that would centralize the private pension system under structures created and administered by the government.
Seriously. The departments earnestly assure us that sound central management will make everything fairer and all of us happier. These would be the same idiots who have done such a nice job of protecting the Social Security Trust Fund and Medicare.
Keep an eye on your wallet- this little experiment on a far-away and sunny island could be the template for things to come right here.
I was going to write you about the demolition of the Navy Annex this morning- it is pretty impressive, and the wonders of exotic Mineral, VA, where I motored yesterday from Refuge Farm in the rain. But we will have to get to that later this week.
Copyright 2013 Vic Soccotra
www.vicsocotra.com