Online Anger Management Classes Help You To Overcome ...

Anger is a natural emotion that occurs in every individual. Even the most calm, cool and collected individual has a meltdown now and then. However, some people suffer from uncontrolled anger, which can be destructive and harmful for an individual's mental and physical health. Sometimes the extent of this emotion goes beyond what would be considered a normal level. A clinical term for someone who has uncontrolled angry blow-ups is Intermittent Explosive Disorder. People who suffer from this high conflict behavior often due well with one-on-one therapy, group therapy or by taking a private anger management class online depending on what feels most comfortable for them.

If you cannot control your emotions of rage and suffer from sudden attacks, the condition is often termed as explosive rage. Today, millions have been diagnosed with this psychological disorder. The condition has a very specific set of symptoms and some obvious characteristics. The features of explosive rage are as follows:

1. Uncontrolled anger and overwhelming emotions

2. Sudden outburst of anger following stressful conditions

3. Unintentional damage to people and properties

4. Depression followed by the outburst of rage

5. Total loss of self-control & disorientation about the surroundings

In most cases, these disorders are associated with a series of unexpected, disastrous life events. Specifically, financial losses, career issues, domestic violence, and relationship issues are some major triggering factors causing the sudden onset of explosive rage. Unfortunately the consequences of an emotional outburst also contribute to such unexpected, disastrous events in an individual's life. Severe damage to personal relationships and properties are quite common when suffering from intermittent explosive disorder.

Fortunately, many people are finding support and solace with online anger management classes. These classes are easily accessible from anywhere in the U.S. Online anger courses include the most advanced, well-researched techniques that are highly effective in improving the psychological condition as long as the individual is ready to make a change.

Some benefits of taking anger management classes online include:

? Online anger management classes focus on defining the root causes triggering a series of emotional outrages. The material will guide you to reflect on the underlying cause.

? Anger management classes online will help you explore the proven techniques and psychological treatment methods. You'll learn how to apply researched and proven treatment methods to overcome emotional outbursts effectively.

? Now, you don't need a classroom or an institution to attend anger management sessions. In fact, you don't have to go anywhere. Having a computer and Internet connection will let you access the powerful, effective resources online.

If you're suffering from an emotional disorder, it's time to be careful about controlling the magnitude before it becomes a dangerous or legal issue. Online anger management courses give you the complete privacy and anonymity you need to help you overcome this behavior. Many people like learning this information online because it can be embarrassing to have to participate in-group discussion about such personal matters.

Online anger control classes are also available to fulfill court requirements. When the client is done with the course, a Certificate of Completion is immediately sent out. This is the documentation that the legal system needs to see to prove the education requirement was fulfilled.

Don?t let your anger control your life, take control of your anger with an online anger management course today!

Source: https://www.angerclassonline.com/blog/post/Online-Anger-Management-Classes-Help-You-To-Overcome-Uncontrolled-Rage.aspx

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After Raising $2.1M, TiKL Opens Their Mobile Chat/Voice Calling API To Developers

For a team that has somehow stayed mostly off the tech press' radar, TiKL has had a pretty friggin' good year. With $0 spent on marketing, their two apps, TiKL and Talkray, have nabbed a total of 28M downloads. After taking part in YC's Winter 2012 class, they raised $2.1M from some of the Valley's biggest names. Today TiKL is unveiling the other half of their business strategy: the Talkray API.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/W2aFHQhXntA/

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High court hears case on federal benefits for gays

WASHINGTON (AP) ? In the second of back-to-back gay marriage cases, the Supreme Court is turning to a constitutional challenge to the law that prevents legally married gay Americans from collecting federal benefits generally available to straight married couples.

A section of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act says marriage may only be a relationship between a man and a woman for purposes of federal law, regardless of state laws that allow same-sex marriage.

Lower federal courts have struck down the measure, and now the justices, in nearly two hours of scheduled argument Wednesday, will consider whether to follow suit.

The DOMA argument follows Tuesday's case over California's ban on same-sex marriage, a case in which the justices indicated they might avoid a major national ruling on whether America's gays and lesbians have a right to marry. Even without a significant ruling, the court appeared headed for a resolution that would mean the resumption of gay and lesbian weddings in California.

Marital status is relevant in more than 1,100 federal laws that include estate taxes, Social Security survivor benefits and health benefits for federal employees. Lawsuits around the country have led four federal district courts and two appeals courts to strike down the law's Section 3, which defines marriage. In 2011, the Obama administration abandoned its defense of the law but continues to enforce it. House Republicans are now defending DOMA in the courts.

Same-sex marriage is legal in nine states and the District of Columbia. The states are Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont and Washington. It also was legal in California for less than five months in 2008.

The justices chose for their review the case of Edith Windsor, 83, of New York, who sued to challenge a $363,000 federal estate tax bill after her partner of 44 years died in 2009.

Windsor, who goes by Edie, married Thea Spyer in 2007 in Canada after doctors told them that Spyer would not live much longer. She suffered from multiple sclerosis for many years. Spyer left everything she had to Windsor.

There is no dispute that if Windsor had been married to a man, her estate tax bill would have been zero.

The U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York agreed with a district judge that the provision of DOMA deprived Windsor of the constitutional guarantee of equal protection of the law.

Like the Proposition 8 case from California, Windsor's lawsuit could falter on a legal technicality without a definitive ruling from the high court.

The House Republicans, the Obama administration and a lawyer appointed by the court especially to argue the issue were to spend the first 50 minutes Wednesday discussing whether the House Republican leadership can defend the law in court because the administration decided not to, and whether the administration forfeited its right to participate in the case because it changed its position and now argues that the provision is unconstitutional.

If the Supreme Court finds that it does not have the authority to hear the case, Windsor probably would still get her refund because she won in the lower courts. But there would be no definitive decision about the law from the nation's highest court, and it would remain on the books.

On Tuesday, the justices weighed a fundamental issue: Does the Constitution require that people be allowed to marry whom they choose, regardless of either partner's gender? The fact that the question was in front of the Supreme Court at all was startling, given that no state recognized same-sex unions before 2003 and 40 states still don't allow them.

But it was clear from the start of the 80-minute argument in a packed courtroom that the justices, including some liberals who seemed open to gay marriage, had doubts about whether they should even be hearing the challenge to California's Proposition 8, the state's voter-approved gay marriage ban.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, the potentially decisive vote on a closely divided court, suggested the justices could dismiss the case with no ruling at all.

Such an outcome would almost certainly allow gay marriages to resume in California but would have no impact elsewhere.

There was no majority apparent for any particular outcome, and many doubts were expressed by justices about the arguments advanced by lawyers for the opponents of gay marriage in California, by the supporters and by the Obama administration, which is in favor of same-sex marriage rights. The administration's entry into the case followed President Barack Obama's declaration of support for gay marriage.

On the one hand, Kennedy acknowledged that same-sex unions had only become legal recently in some states, a point stressed repeatedly by Charles Cooper, the lawyer for the defenders of Proposition 8. Cooper said the court should uphold the ban as a valid expression of the people's will and let the vigorous political debate over gay marriage continue.

But Kennedy pressed him also to address the interests of the estimated 40,000 children in California who have same-sex parents.

"They want their parents to have full recognition and full status," Kennedy said. "The voice of those children is important in this case, don't you think?"

Yet when Theodore Olson, the lawyer for two same-sex couples, urged the court to support such marriage rights everywhere, Kennedy feared such a ruling would push the court into "uncharted waters." Olson said the court similarly ventured into the unknown in 1967 when it struck down bans on interracial marriage in 16 states.

Kennedy challenged the accuracy of that comment: He noted that other countries had had interracial marriages for hundreds of years.

The justice also made clear he did not like the rationale of the federal appeals court that struck down Proposition 8, even though it cited earlier opinions in favor of gay rights that Kennedy had written.

That appeals court ruling applied only to California, where same-sex couples briefly had the right to marry before the state's voters in November 2008 adopted Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment that defined marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

Reflecting the high interest in the cases, the court planned to release an audio recording of Wednesday's argument shortly after it concludes, just as it did Tuesday.

The Tuesday audio can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/dxefy2a .

___

Follow Mark Sherman at www.twitter.com/shermancourt

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/high-court-hears-case-federal-benefits-gays-065829810--politics.html

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AP Source: CBS buys half of TV Guide net for $100M

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Broadcaster CBS Corp. is buying a 50 percent stake in TV Guide's pay TV channel and website for nearly $100 million, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The price is less than the $123 million that JPMorgan Chase's One Equity Partners paid for a 49 percent stake four years ago. It brings CBS Corp. into an equal partnership with Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.

The deal terms come from a person who wasn't authorized to speak publicly and who spoke on condition of anonymity.

CBS said the channel, available in more than 80 million homes, will continue to focus on entertainment. Details about rebranding it will come. It will combine CBS' programming, production and marketing with Lions Gate's resources in movies, TV shows and digital content.

Previously, the channel had mainly been used as a guide for other channels, but set-top boxes come with their own guides these days. The channel, called TVGN, currently shows reruns of such programs as "Who's The Boss," ''Ugly Betty" and older movies. Most viewers don't see the scrolling TV listings guide any more.

TV Guide magazine, which is owned separately by OpenGate Capital, isn't part of the deal.

Analysts have said the channel will benefit from CBS's operational and TV programming expertise. Aside from the CBS network itself, it will become the most widely distributed channel that CBS operates. CBS also owns the Smithsonian Networks, CBS Sports network and premium channel Showtime.

CBS Chief Executive Les Moonves said in a statement the channel will offer a strategic way for CBS to use its brands "and gain access to a highly distributed basic cable network that has a lot of upside."

CBS and Lions Gate have worked together in the past. Lions Gate produces the shows "Weeds" and "Nurse Jackie" for Showtime.

CBS shares were up 4 cents in after-hours trading at $45.75 following the announcement, after closing up 29 cents at $45.71 in normal trading. Lions Gate shares rose 19 cents to $24, after rising 2.7 percent to close at $23.81 in the regular session.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-03-26-TV%20Guide%20Network-CBS-Sale/id-fb21fd34b12a43fa94a2ce5fd6284d95

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WHITE HOUSE NOTEBOOK: Obama heckler shouted down

President Barack Obama, accompanied by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, removes his Israeli Medal of Distinction, which he received at the State Dinner at President?s residence in Jerusalem, Israel, Thursday, March 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Barack Obama, accompanied by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, removes his Israeli Medal of Distinction, which he received at the State Dinner at President?s residence in Jerusalem, Israel, Thursday, March 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Barack Obama pauses during his speech at the Jerusalem Convention Center in Jerusalem, Israel, Thursday, March 21, 2013, (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

U.S. President Barack Obama, right, walks alongside of with Sgt. Theresa Hannigan, left, from Long Island, New York and Radi Kaiuf, center, during a tour of the Technology Expo in Jerusalem, Israel, Thursday, March 21, 2013. Hannigan and Kaiuf where demonstrating technology that assist paraplegics to walk again.(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Barack Obama receives the Israeli Medal of Distinction from Israeli President Shimon Peres, Thursday, March 21, 2013, at a State Dinner at President?s residence in Jerusalem, Israel, Thursday, March 21, 2013, (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right in background, talk with Sgt. Theresa Hannigan, left, from Long Island, New York and Radi Kaiuf, center, during their tour of the Technology Expo in Jerusalem, Israel, Thursday, March 21, 2013. Hannigan and Kaiuf where demonstrating technology that assist paraplegics to walk again.(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

JERUSALEM (AP) ? President Barack Obama was interrupted by a heckler while giving a speech to an audience of Israeli university students, but he didn't lose his cool.

The president was talking about the U.S. being a close ally to Israel when the heckler piped up. The crowd shouted him down.

"This is part of the lively debate that we talked about," said an unruffled Obama. "This is good."

That got him a standing ovation from many of the students.

"I have to say we actually arranged for that because it made me feel at home," Obama said, grinning. "I wouldn't feel comfortable if I didn't have at least one heckler."

Obama went on to deliver an impassioned appeal for Israel to recognize that compromise will be necessary to achieve lasting security.

___

Obama has permitted TV crews with live microphones to accompany him at virtually every stop in Israel, giving a rare and fascinating glimpse at the joking and small talk that takes place on the sidelines of official visits.

In Jerusalem on Thursday, Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Israel Museum, where they examined the Dead Sea Scrolls. Reading a passage from Isaiah from a facsimile of a scroll, Netanyahu explained: "It says, 'Nations should not lift swords unto nations and they shall know war no more."

The phrase forms the lyrics to a popular Hebrew folk song often used as a rallying call for peace.

Obama marveled that the Hebrew language had not changed much over the centuries.

Minutes later, during a tour of a technology exhibit, the two leaders stopped by a display of a robotic snake that can burrow into rubble during rescue operations. The three-foot contraption wriggled and separated and reared up. "Let me just say, my wife would not like this," Obama said, grinning.

At a brain imaging display, a scientist explained that the first step in studying brain function is taking accurate measurements of the brain. "That presupposes there is something to measure, right?" Netanyahu joked.

Developers of a driver assistance device that detects road obstacles described how their Mobileye protected passengers by sensing a car's proximity to other cars.

"Pedestrians, too?" Obama asked. "Pedestrians, cars...," one of the developers replied.

"Dogs?" Obama wondered. "Not dogs," came the reply.

___

For Obama, this was personal. The president reflected repeatedly on his experience as a father and an African American as he contemplated the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

Standing alongside Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, Obama contrasted the experience of children growing up amid the conflict to that of his two daughters, who in an earlier period in American history would have been denied the opportunities granted to others.

"Those of us in the United States understand that change takes time, but it is also possible," he said.

Later, in Jerusalem, Obama cited Martin Luther King Jr. and likened the story of the upcoming Jewish holiday of Passover to the experience of blacks in the U.S. who were freed from slavery and persecution.

Of the Passover story, Obama added: "For me personally, growing up in far-flung parts of the world and without firm roots, it spoke to a yearning within every human being for a home."

And the president veered briefly off of his prepared remarks to scores of Israeli students to convey a lesson he took away from meeting earlier in the day with Palestinian students in the occupied West Bank.

"They weren't that different from my daughters. They weren't that different from your daughters or sons," he said. "I honestly believe that if any Israeli parent sat down with those kids, they'd say, 'I want these kids to succeed. I want them to prosper. I want them to have opportunities just like my kids do.'"

___

At the White House, Obama is used to bestowing medals on combat veterans, both living and deceased, as well as famous Americans, scientists, inventors and others.

But on Thursday, it was his turn to bow his head and accept one for himself.

During a state dinner at Israeli President Shimon Peres' official residence, Peres presented his American counterpart with the Medal of Distinction, the highest honor the Jewish state bestows on civilians. An announcer said it was for Obama's "unique and significant" contributions to Israel's security.

"This award speaks to your tireless work to make Israel strong," Peres said during his toast. Then he put the large, round medal dangling from a wide, dark-blue ribbon with a white stripe down the middle around Obama's neck.

The medal features the North Star to symbolize the right path. Also on the medal is a menorah ? the emblem of Israel and a symbol of the link between past and present. It is inscribed with the words from Samuel 9:2, "from his shoulders and upward."

Obama wore the medal as he delivered his reciprocal toast.

"This is an extraordinary honor for me and I could not be more deeply moved," he said.

___

During portions of the dinner that were open to media coverage, Obama and Netanyahu continued the newfound chumminess they displayed a day earlier.

Seated next to each other at a rectangular head table draped in white cloth and adorned with white tulips and orchids, the two leaders were seen leaning in and whispering to one another, laughing and smiling as they awaited Peres' remarks. At one point, they hid their mouths behind their hands strategically to thwart lip readers and microphones in the room.

Obama and Netanyahu have had a prickly relationship, but they have put on a happier face during Obama's first visit to Israel as president.

Among the 120 dinner guests seated at similarly decorated round banquet tables were Justice minister Tzipi Livni; Avigdor Lieberman, a Netanyahu ally; and U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz of Florida, the chair of the Democratic Party.

The invite list led to some interesting pairings.

Seated together at one table were a rabbi from the Western Wall and a Muslim cleric. At another table sat Michael Oren, Israel's ambassador to Washington; Yair Lapid, the new star of Israeli politics and a leader of the centrist Yesh Atid party; Yuli Eidelstein, a hard-line Likud lawmaker who is a former Soviet political prisoner and the new speaker of Israel's parliament; U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Livni.

What were they served? A fish appetizer, a duet of beef and lamb on a potato tart, salad, and a plate of fruit, ?clairs, dates and other pastries and sweets.

___

In the most emotional moment of the tech tour, Obama and Netanyahu encountered a Druze Israeli war veteran and a U.S. army veteran, both paralyzed from the waist down. Both demonstrated how they were able to walk with the help of crutches and a computerized exoskeleton that supported their legs as they moved.

Obama gave both presidential "challenge coins," used to recognize veterans for their service.

The army veteran, Theresa Hannigan, a 60-year-old from Long Island, N.Y., was learning how to use the motorized aides, called the ReWalk, at the Bronx VA hospital. She implored Obama to help the device obtain FDA approval. Her voice breaking, Hannigan stood straight and hugged Obama.

The system is made by an Israeli company called Argo Medical Technologies. Its exoskeleton suit uses computers and motion sensors to allow paraplegics to walk with motorized legs that power knee and hip movement.

Obama offered a personal reflection. "Michelle's father had MS, so he used crutches until he was probably 45, 50, then got a wheelchair."

Netanyahu replied: "This would have given him a different life."

___

Peres is making sure that controversy over a tree brought to Israel by Obama does not upset the deep-rooted ties between the countries.

Obama brought the magnolia tree as a gift, and planted it at Peres' official residence during a welcoming ceremony Wednesday. Israeli media later reported that the tree would have to be uprooted and tested to make sure it complied with agricultural import regulations.

Peres' office quickly denied the report. It said agriculture officials would conduct "all the necessary tests" required by law but stressed the checkup would be done "without removing the tree from the place where it was planted, as agreed."

___

Associated Press writer Daniel Estrin contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-03-21-Obama-Israel-Notebook/id-3cf1d41464ef4ea6b8fc182f55498152

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Insights into the immune system, from the fates of individual T cells

Thursday, March 21, 2013

By charting the differing fates of individual T cells, researchers have shown that previously unpredictable aspects of the adaptive immune response can be effectively modeled. The crucial question: What determines which of the immune system's millions of cells will mobilize to fight an acute infection and which will be held back to survive long-term, forming the basis of the immunological memory? The scientists' findings, published in the journal Science, could have implications for improved immunotherapy and vaccination strategies.

The scientists found that the immediate immune response to an infection or tumor is mounted by a relatively tiny fraction of the so-called CD8+ T cells that are capable of recognizing the associated antigen. These few rapidly expand into giant populations of short-lived T cells targeted at killing infected cells or cancer cells. Meanwhile the vast majority remain in smaller populations geared toward longevity, to help ensure that the immune system will remember the antigen when it appears again in the future.

"Up to now, it was only possible to observe groups of immune cells during the response to an infection," says Prof. Dirk Busch of the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM). "We have developed technology that enables us to observe individual T cells." Together with innovative cell processing technology, the researchers brought theoretical systems biology and clinical expertise to bear on this investigation, a collaboration of TUM, the University of Heidelberg, the Helmholtz Center Munich, the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), and the National Center for Infection Research (DZIF).

Marking the threshold of predictability

A single T cell is theoretically capable of generating an adaptive immune response by developing into diverse and expanding populations, fighting the acute infection as well as providing lasting memory for the future. But a fundamental question ? whether an effective response is predetermined on the level of an individual T cell or emerges from the commingled fates of multiple cells ? had never been put to the test. Another unresolved question concerned the order in which populations of short-lived killer cells and long-lived memory cells develop.

To address these questions, researchers at TUM began by introducing specially marked T cells into mice and then triggering a specific immune reaction. Around seven days later, they were able to determine how many descendant cells, and what kinds, had been generated by individual T cells. Biomathematical modeling, using an approach co-developed with the group of Prof. Thomas Hoefer at Heidelberg, helped to explain what the data showed. "One can't predict which 'career paths' the descendants of an individual killer T cell will take, " says first author Veit Buchholz, a medical resident at TUM. "This is a matter of chance, like a single roll of the dice. To generate a predictable immune response, we have found that a sample of at least 50 individual cells is needed."

From analysis of many of the huge populations of short-lived killer cells and the relatively tiny populations of long-lived memory cells, the researchers were able to reconstruct the T cells' development program and predict their behavior: All of the cells proceed along the same path of development, but they don't go the same distance. That is, the few cells that generate giant populations of short-lived infection fighters have gone through the same stage as those fated to produce memory cells ? but they have left that stage behind to provide immediate protection.

Beyond the results themselves, another important outcome of this study is increased confidence in the combined power of the in vivo and in silico approaches. "The fact that the experimental results confirmed our predictions in detail has strongly supported our theory," says Prof. Hoefer, leader of the Heidelberg group.

There are several ways these findings could become important in the setting of human health, the researchers explain ? in improving the effectiveness of immunotherapy against cancer, for example, or in optimizing treatment for older people, who tend to have significantly fewer copies of a given type of immune cell. "The future memory cell stands at the beginning of an expansion process with two extreme forms of differentiation," Buchholz says, "and ideally there should be a balance, so that the memory pool is not depleted. So we can think about how to tweak vaccination schemes to first allow expansion and not let differentiation kick in too early."

###

Technische Universitaet Muenchen: http://www.tum.de

Thanks to Technische Universitaet Muenchen for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127386/Insights_into_the_immune_system__from_the_fates_of_individual_T_cells

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Cyprus and the Death of Deposit Insurance | RealClearPolitics

From the beginning, the European crisis has been a story of small countries on the Eurozone's "periphery" revealing fundamental problems at the heart of the system. Now a very small country on the outer edges of the periphery?the tiny Mediterranean island of Cyprus, with about a million inhabitants and 0.02% of Europe's GDP?is triggering the latest wave of the crisis.

This is not really about Cyprus, of course, but about the precedent that is being set there. In exchange for an infusion of capital into the nation's banks, Cyprus is being asked to impose a "special bank levy" that would take 6.75% out of all bank deposits up to 100,000 euros, and 9.9% above that.

This is described as a "wealth tax," except that it's not a tax. A tax is a regular rule that operates uniformly according to a pre-determine formula. A one-time, ad hoc seizure of money isn't a tax. It is confiscation. Or we can use a plainer word for it: theft.

The big news isn't this bank heist, but who is pulling it off. The plan was imposed, not by some wild-eyed revanchist Communists, but by the finance ministers of respectable European countries, who thought up the idea and imposed it on Cyprus. Like Willie Sutton, they know where the money is.

There are special circumstances that made them think they might get away with it. Cyprus is a small island with a large banking center that holds deposits many times larger than the local economy. A lot of this money comes from Russia, and Cyprus is reputedly a tax haven for Russian "oligarchs" (politically connected billionaires) and mobsters. In an American context, you might compare Cyprus to the Cayman Islands, which have been so vilified just having a bank account there is enough to end a politician's career. Just ask Mitt Romney.

But in showing us what they'll do to an unsympathetic target, Europe's leaders are showing us what they would like to do everywhere: dig themselves and the crony banks out of a tight spot through the mass confiscation of wealth. It's the ultimate bailout plan: they just take whatever they need.

And there is more to it than that. This is confiscation, but it a particular kind of confiscation with particular implications. It is the end of deposit insurance. Depositors, particularly small depositors, are supposed to have an ironclad guarantee that their money will always be there, no matter what?that they won't wake up one Monday morning to find that 6.75% of it is gone.

That's why the Cyprus heist is really important. It is a warning that the whole system of deposit insurance is coming unglued.

Deposit insurance is central to modern banking?or rather, it is central to the contemporary system of government-guaranteed, government-regulated, too-big-to-fail banking. Here is how the deal is supposed to work. The government guarantees ordinary bank deposits, but in exchange it imposes regulations meant to prevent banks from failing so that they will rarely have to call on the government guarantees. But then there's a complication. While the government's deposit insurance raises enough money to handle the failure of a limited number of smaller banks, there are some institutions that grow so big that the government doesn't have enough money to cover their losses if things go wrong. That's one of the reasons why these banks become "too big to fail," which necessitates even more government support, in exchange for which they are supposed to be placed under an even heavier layer of regulation.

Cyprus is a signal that this whole system is failing. Government regulation doesn't actually guarantee solvency; in fact, it is the insolvency of the governments themselves that triggered the Euro crisis. Moreover, when things really go wrong, the government can't actually guarantee all of the deposits?and now we're starting to wonder whether they're still interested in trying.

When this system starts to come apart, its consequences are worse than an ordinary bank panic. In the bad old days, when individual banks and their depositors were on their own, if one bank failed?and if it was not bought out or rescued by another bank?its depositors might take a haircut, but only after shareholders and bondholders were wiped out. This gave all of the parties a strong incentive to make sure the bank was solvent and wasn't taking too many risks. Under the current system, all of these parties are absolved from such a responsibility, but we pay a heavy price for it. When things go wrong, every depositor at every bank gets a haircut, while politics decides who gets hit worse. In the Cyprus deal, European bondholders will be protected, but Russian oligarchs will be looted, and small Cypriot depositors will get caught in the middle. Remember, also, that all of this is being done to avoid a run on the banks?but that is precisely what has been happening in Cyprus, with depositors emptying the nation's cash machines in an attempt to withdraw their money before it could be seized.

Combine this news with Gretchen Morgenson's summary of a Senate inquiry into huge trading losses at JPMorgan Chase, one of our too-big-to-fail megabanks. The bottom line is that big banks are still too big to fail and they are still taking undeclared risks backed by taxpayer money. Across the board, the general sense is that the system is failing and government leaders aren't really trying to reform it. They're just trying to restore the status quo ante, setting us up for a whole new round of financial crisis.

Can Cyprus happen here? Well, some on the left are already floating plans to rescind the tax exemptions on retirement accounts, making a grab for a big pile of your savings.

But will they do what Cyprus is doing with our bank deposits? Probably not. If history is any guide, our political czars wouldn't attempt something so crude as to just grab money from our accounts. No, they'll do what they have always done: siphon it gradually by printing lots of money and inflating away our savings.

I understand if you don't find that very reassuring.?

Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/03/19/cyprus_and_the_death_of_deposit_insurance_117513.html

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