Cyprus Votes Against Silly Deposit Tax (or Theft)

The parliament of Cyprus has just voted against stealing assets from depositors to fund the nation's bailout of its banking system. This is good news because it sends a message to the European Union that they cannot just steal money from the public. The bad news is that this leaves Cyprus in a situation where its bailout is now back in limbo and might not come about.

We are not seeing much of a recovery in the ADRs which would be tied closer to this situation in Cyprus. Shares of the National Bank of Greece S.A. (NYSE: NBG) are down another 7% to $0.892 on three-times normal trading volume after hitting a 52-week low of $0.872 today. The Global X FTSE Greece 20 ETF (NYSEMKT: GREK) is still down 4% at $16.05 on the day, but its trading volume is light at just over 35,000 shares.

We are glad to see that the Cypriot parliament voted against this measure. We are not glad to see that this means that the risks to the nation are back front and center.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Austerity, Banking & Finance, Economy, International Markets, Personal Finance, Tax Tagged: featured, GREK, NBG