Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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Venezuela: Nicolas and the forty thieves UPDATED

The US has imposed sanctions on 10 Venezuelan officials it accuses of undermining democracy, corruption and censoring the press, for a total of forty, including Nicolás Maduro.

The ten have had their US assets frozen and are also banned from travelling to the country, while American businesses are forbidden to work with them.

The treasury department also issued bans against several members of Venezuela’s all-powerful Constituent Assembly, including a vice-president.

In other news,

Ambassadors of European Union member states agreed on Wednesday to impose an arms embargo on Venezuela.

They also said there would be a ban on any equipment which could be used to repress opponents within Venezuela.

The sanctions come after a UN report released in August accused Venezuela of human rights violations and using excessive force against the opposition.

Caracas Chronicles calls it A Bad Day for the Dictatorship.

Not bad enough. They’re still in charge.

UPDATE

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Colombian gangs stealing from EU hospitals

A new twist on the drug trade’s criminality:
Greek police say a Colombian criminal gang has stolen expensive medical equipment from four Athens hospitals, with similar thefts seen across Europe. Three men and a woman, who apparently returned to Bogota,

Three suspects, still at large, have been identified. Bogota police have recovered four endoscopes, which tend to be used for internal examinations.

The Athens thefts happened last month. The Colombians had entered as tourists.

Police said a drug gang probably wanted endoscopes to check that drug-smuggling mules had really swallowed the drugs.

If you think the drug gangs would be able to afford buying their own, it’s a matter of scale:

Attica security chief Christos Papazafiris, quoted by Greek media, said:

  • Medical equipment worth more than €500,000 (£434,000; $563,000) was stolen from St Savvas Hospital on 15 May
  • Equipment worth €115,000 was stolen from the Lamia and Larissa hospitals between 19-22 May
  • Two gastroscopes (used to inspect the interior of the stomach) were stolen from the gastroenterological department of Volos hospital on 21 May

The losses are hitting a Greek health service struggling because of austerity cuts in recent years, imposed under the EU bailout deal.

Mr Papazafiris said similar thefts had taken place in the past four years in Lithuania, Luxembourg, Spain, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Italy, France and Croatia.

Multiply the amounts stolen from Greece times ten countries, and now you’re talking.

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Today’s vision of hell, airline travel edition:

From Airbus, the folks who floated the standing up flights trial balloon, this:

Could cattle class get any worse? Introducing BUDGET economy where airlines are squeezing an extra seat in every row
Airbus are increasing their seats from 10 to 11 seats in every row
The addition will see Airbus creating a fourth cheaper class called Choice
The change is to be launched in 2017 on the Airbus 380 model
Airbus state the move is to reflect 90 per cent of fliers using economy
Thankfully seat widths will remain at the standard 18 inches

“Thankfully” nothing – When the seats are so narrow that the little head pillows are shown narrow side up, you know it’s hell.

Those seats are not wide enough for the average adult, but the 3rd graders may do OK.

Pity the fool who gets the aisle seat, too. Those are narrow aisles.

As for BUDGET economy, a friend just told me that the EU countries are charging a US$500 travel tax on flights from the US. How’s that for “BUDGET economy”?

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#DDay70 Interpretive dance?

Yesterday was a very busy day, so I missed the TV broadcast of the D-Day commemoration. It came as a total surprise, then, when a friend asked “how did you like the interpretive dance?”

The rest of the conversation went downhill from there:
Me: Say what? Interpretive dance?

Friend: Yes.

Me: You’re pulling my leg.

Friend: Nope.

Me: Like they used to have in churches that were trying to be cool in the 1970s?

Friend: I’m not making this up. They did a very long interpretive dance thing.

Me: We are sooo doomed.

Sure enough:

Obama chewed gum, the Queen frowned, and the MSNBC commentators carefully ignored the dance part.

Where’s Mel Brooks when we need him?

Only the mindset who thinks the EU in its present state is a great thing would find this interpretive dance appropriate.

Gabriel Malor honored the veterans, appropriately,

Blogging on Latin America shall continue shortly.

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Captain Louis Renault goes to Cyprus

“I am shocked, shocked!”
Mega-Rich Withdrew Money From Cyprus Before Looting

The real targets of the “haircut” are businesses, entrepreneurs and the middle class

News that the Cypriot President’s family moved 21 million euros to London days before the bank accounts of his people were looted as part of the bailout deal serves as another reminder that while the media portrays the victims of the Cyprus “haircut” as the mega rich and wealthy Russian oligarchs, the real victims are middle class families and small business owners.

And,

In addition, as Reuters reports, “While ordinary Cypriots queued at ATM machines to withdraw a few hundred euros as credit card transactions stopped, other depositors used an array of techniques to access their money.”

Branches and subsidiaries of Cypriot banks in London and Russia remained open while banks in Cyprus were closed, allowing Russian oligarchs and other wealthy depositors to move their money.

When asked about the amount of money that had exited Cyprus before the bailout deal, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble refused to provide figures.

Take it away, Louis!

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EU: Raiders of the lost savings UPDATED

They’re taking what’s yours

This should take no one by surprise at this point; in fact, Kudlow was talking about it on his show last week,
Cyprus bail-out: savers will be raided to save euro in future crises, says eurozone chief
Savings accounts in Spain, Italy and other European countries will be raided if needed to preserve Europe’s single currency by propping up failing banks, a senior eurozone official has announced.

The euro fell on global markets after Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch chairman of the eurozone, announced that the heavy losses inflicted on depositors in Cyprus would be the template for future banking crises across Europe.

“If there is a risk in a bank, our first question should be ‘Okay, what are you in the bank going to do about that? What can you do to recapitalise yourself?’,” he said.

“If the bank can’t do it, then we’ll talk to the shareholders and the bondholders, we’ll ask them to contribute in recapitalising the bank, and if necessary the uninsured deposit holders.”

Because,

“If we want to have a healthy, sound financial sector, the only way is to say, ‘Look, there where you take on the risks, you must deal with them, and if you can’t deal with them, then you shouldn’t have taken them on,'” he said.

It would have been nice of him to have warned savers that their accounts could be raided. But I digress.

The president of Cyprus says it’s all temporary,

Which brings up this question,
Have The Russians Already Quietly Withdrawn All Their Cash From Cyprus? Yes, they have, never to return.

How’s that for “temporary”?

Related:
Hayek v. Krugman – Cyprus’ Capital Controls

UPDATE:
Repeat after me: $19.2 trillion dollars is currently held by US citizens in 401k and other retirement accounts.

Do you really think the government doesn’t want to “help” you manage that money?


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