On The Cyprus Stress Test And Bail-In

- Friedrich Nietzsche

I thought it would be interesting to take a poll of a cross-section of Americans and find out just how many actually know what went down in Cyprus over these last two weeks. I would bet good money that, at most, 20% could tell you that "something" happened with the banks, that another 30% have heard of Cyprus and a full 50% have no clue. It would be interesting to see what percentage of those that have no clue are part of the now 48 million Americans receiving food stamps as of the end of December (which means the real number is closer to 49 million now)

At any rate, I'm sure the readers of blogs like this one are well aware of the bank stress tests that have been performed by western Central Banks on the big banks in their respective countries. I'm also sure most you are aware of just what joke those stress tests are.

Well, for those you who think the stress tests have merit, here's a headline from the July 16, 2011 Cyprus Mail, which is Cyprus' leading newspaper:

Cyprus banks pass EU stress test

And here's the article from that edition: LINK

I guess a lot of skeptics will want to believe that Cyprus is a little out of the way country with an unsophisticated Central Bank and that the U.S. Fed's bank stress tests are bona fide. But then again, those are the same people who read the headline in the Wall Street Journal announcing that a record number of American joined the food stamp payroll even though the economy is getting better: "Use of Food Stamps Swells Even as Economy Improves" LINK

Call me crazy but the idea that "food stamp usage swelling/improving economy" seems like an oxymoron. More like, only a moron would believe that the economy is improving.

In honor of the language of one the next countries to enjoy a successful bank stress test and which will likely be one of the next two or three countries to experience a bank "bail-in"/uninsured bank deposit confiscation operation: buon fine settimana lungo a tutti.