Greece

     We read that bank offices are now closed throughout Greece, but bankers are graciously letting customers stand in line all day to withdraw up to 60 Euros every 24 hours from ATM machines that, as one would expect, add to your banking experience by periodically running out of money.  Reliable sources hold that the largest institutions are insolvent, and Andreas Andreadis, President of the Greek Tourism Confederation, just opined that tourists "obviously" need to bring cash with them if vacationing there.  Such may not be much of an issue, however, as hotel bookings are reported to have dropped to zero pretty much everywhere.

     Minutes ago, we were informed that plans are afoot to "bail-in" the Greek banking system, that is, tap bank deposits to cover the losses currently being improperly carried on industry books as assets under the kind of dubious terms these disreputable charlatans use to describe their worthless paper, such as "questionable" or "problem" or "non-current" loans, whenever the scoundrels want to avoid reporting inconvenient write-downs.  If the enormity of that problem turns out to be as high as 40% of the portfolios, as one estimate has it, depositors could be facing haircuts in the order of 15-25%.

     A bail-in like that would turn accounts of E100,000 into accounts of something like E75,000, with the difference lost and gone forever, akin to what went down in Cyprus a while back.

     Be forewarned.  This is what happens when the kind of wastrels we see in the Barry Soetoro White House and his commie-minded buddies on the Hill run your country into the ground with their wild-spending ways.