Love And Marriage, Horse And Carriage... Conservatism And Corruption

A few days ago I happened to mention-- just in passing-- that there is no way, and has never been a way, to separate conservatism from corruption. The two have always gone hand in hand, as they do today. And I'm not just talking about the Republican Party, the Blue Dogs and New Dems or even just the United States. All through history and all over the world conservatism and corruption have had a symbiotic relationship. Tyler Durden uncovered how it worked in the big Cyprus bank robbery.

A little background: Cyprus' new president, Nicos Anastasiades, is a right-wing hack politician, head of their version of the Republican Party, Democratic Rally (DISY). As the country sank into Austerity catastrophe, Cypriots made the disastrous mistake of blindly electing Anastasiades-- who believes in Austerity on steroids-- this past February. Unemployment, which has plagued the island since the 2009 subprime economic crisis wasn't addressed and cutting back on government spending and services was the order of the day. It made an already bad situation worse as the recession turned into a depression and the European Union bailout plan wrecked the economy entirely. Anastasiades seemed to be concerned with nothing but saving the bank deposits of the very wealthy, particularly of his Russian Mafia supporters. While the European Union bailout was being negotiated Cyprus' governing elites were doing all they could to cash in-- or cash out.

A day after former Cypriot President Vassilou was found to be among many elite Cypriot (politicians and businessmen) who had loans written-off by the major (now insolvent) banks; it appears the rot is far fouler than expected. In a somewhat stunning (or purely coincidental) revelation, ENETEnglish reports that Cypriot newspaper Haravgi claims that current President Nicos Anastasiades' family businesses transferred 'dozens of millions' from their Laiki Bank accounts to London just a week before the devastating depositor haircuts were unleashed upon his people. Of course, the denials are loud and Anastasiades has demanded an investigation into the claims; we are sure the government-selected 'independent' committee will be as thorough as the Libor anti-trust investigators.

A company owned by in-laws of Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades withdrew dozens of millions from Laiki Bank on March 12 and 13, according to an article published in Cypriot newspaper Haravgi.

The newspaper, which is affiliated to the communist-rooted AKEL party, reports that three days before the Eurogroup meeting the company took five promissory notes worth €21m from Laiki Bank and transferred the money to London.

Responding to the allegations, Anastasiades said: “The attempt to defame companies or people linked to my family… is nothing but an attempt to distract people from the liability of those who led the country to a state of bankruptcy.”

Anastasiades solution to the Cyprus' mess: casinos. I guess selling a hunk of the island's south coast to Russia for a replacement for the Russian naval base at Tartus in Syria, hasn't worked out. Cyprus' Orthodox Church, which has a lot more clout than Anastasiades, hasn't signed off on the plan to turn the island into a den of iniquity yet. So Anastasiades has taken to the twitter. The top tweet (in Greek) says: "I have already authorized the Accountant General of the Republic to make a reduction of 25% of my salary." And the bottom one... well.. I wonder why he did that one in English.