Cyprus Says No

The Dow closed up 3.76 points while the S&P 500 closed down 3.76 points.

The big news today was that the parliament in Cyprus shot down the bailout deal. It didn’t get a single vote. But our stock market got a bump later in the day when the ECB said they’ll provide liquidity for banks in Cyprus. Still, things will be ugly there when banks eventually open. Whenever that is.

The deposit tax idea strike me as something similar to the mint the coin idea that was floating around a few weeks ago. The idea makes some sense and it’s better than a lot of alternatives. The problem is that it seems to the average person on the street to be not merely flawed policy but outright immoral. You just don’t go around confiscating wealth. Good citizens are the ones who are supposed to be saving their money in the bank.

The Fed began a two-day meeting today. Tomorrow we’ll get a look at their policy statement and Ben Bernanke will meet the press.

Posted by on March 19th, 2013 at 4:24 pm


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