Former British Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling has war...
Darling said that the unprecedented step of looting banks account of those with 100,000 euros or less could lead to a collapse in confidence because it "blows apart" the notion that such sums are protected.
"They have actually now said to people 'We will come after your deposits, no matter how small your savings are' and that seems to me to make it more likely that, if you are a saver in Spain or in Italy, for example, and you have just the sniff of the EU or the IMF coming your way, you will take your money out and you will get a run on the bank," he told BBC Radio Four's Today show.
Highlighting the case of Northern Rock, a UK bank that became the first in 150 years to suffer a bank run, leading to its collapse, Darling warned that the precedent set in Cyprus could cause chaos.
"I’m not suggesting that tomorrow morning everybody in Southern Europe is going to take their money out of their banks," he said. "We saw with Northern Rock, everything can be fine on day, and even though I said the Government was standing behind people’s money, we saw queues grow and grow and grow because people thought they were doing the right thing getting their money out."
Darling concluded that the way the European Union had handled the issue illustrated how the EU was beginning to "unravel".
He is absolutely right. Confidence has been shattered. In fact, I would tell all Spaniards, Greeks,Portuguese, Italians and Britains to take their money out now. Keep your money and bring these #!@$&*! down. -Mort
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