Richard (RJ) Eskow: Cyprus Has the Global Money Elite's Fingerprints All Over It

Richard (RJ) Eskow: Cyprus Has the Global Money Elite's Fingerprints All Over It~~ That's confiscation, not taxation -- and their rationale seems to be that these depositors had a really, really good interest rate.

That, and the fact that they weren't bankers.

They'll shaft 100 innocent people to get one person they don't like.

Sure, some Cypriot depositors are Russian oligarchs. But this tax applies to everybody. How many innocent people is it worth shafting to get at one shady character -- 10? 100? 1,000?

They won't say. But apparently it's a lot.

Chief Red Cloud was right.

There is a Native American tribe named the Oglagla Lakota. Like all Native American tribes, they made numerous treaties with the U.S. government, most of which the U.S. government promptly broke.

One of the tribe's chiefs was called Makhpia-sha -- in English, "Red Cloud." The Dakota-Lakota-Nakota Nation's Human Rights Advocacy Coalition reminds us of the famous quote attributed to Red Cloud:

"They made us many promises, more than I can remember. But they kept but one -- they promised to take our land... and they took it."

An EU-guaranteed savings account, like its American counterpart, is a promise. The idea of sovereignty among nations is a promise. Economic self-determination is a promise. A well-regulated banking system that protects your livelihood is a promise.

But the global financial sector's implicit promise, one that was made explicit by events in Cyprus, is this: Whenever they need or want your money, they consider it theirs to take -- and sovereignty be damned.