Trading Game , Part II : The times when the evidence reveal the criminal activities

 

What I observe in the UK today, is what I observed in Greece, after 2004 and what I was monitoring in Cyprus, during 2008-2013. MSN published today that another company entered administration. There is a pattern that explains this trend. People have money and spend, during good times but then people have less money, spend less and too many companies suffer huge losses. If we observe the current situation, the people have to pay increased bills. So their extra choices are becoming too limited. After they spend the money for the bills and the rent, they have to choose between food and heating. Anything else has become luxury.

As far as I remember, in the main avenue of Nicosia, there was a BHS store. It shut down when I was still in primary school. Their merchandise was expensive and to my own eyes seemed outdated, as well. I noticed that two decades later, it collapsed in the UK, entered administration and shut down. In the last few years too many companies entered administration. Woolworths, Debenhams, Wilko, Bodycare. There is an extremely simplified explanation for that. Higher costs, high prices, losing customers. As I remember, there was a customer mentioning “why pay for washing powder 4 pounds in Wilko since the exact same costs 2 pounds in Poundland? “.

There was an interesting story during the collapse of Cyprus Airways and Olympic Airways. At the time we all struggled to attract investors, in order to save those two companies, there was another part, inside each company, trying to save their own benefits. Trying to save their own (and unexplained..) benefits meant that no serious investors would risk to save them. That was the main reason that the UK government gave British Airways to the private sector. There is a moment you are not able to control everything. Greece and Cyprus failed to receive the message.

The collapse of the banking system in Iceland is an extremely interesting example of proper management. You leave the markets to do their own job and at the same time you avoid transferring those losses and other hidden obligations to the people that had nothing to do with the mess. The law did their job, as well, investigated and punished. Cyprus followed a completely different behaviour, a few years later. The major Cyprus Banks (Bank of Cyprus and Cyprus Popular Bank) invested in Russia and Ukraine but the outcome was extremely poor. In the exact same period the Cyprus government used the Social Security Pot for their own salaries and pensions. That also activated and increased the financial instability, known as Ponzi finance. There were clear criminal activities, implemented by the Cyprus administrations during that period of time. Although, in Cyprus the bubbles of the oligarchs are too strong. They protect each other and transfer the bill to the rest of the population. The population realised a few years later that their property (including their houses) were sold to foreign funds, in order to cover the losses caused by the banking gang.

There are two extremely valuable books, describing what happens in Cyprus. THE GANG (2020) and MAFIA-STATE (2022) both written by the Cypriot researcher Makarios Drousiotis, explaining how the former Cyprus president, Nikos Anastasiadis, was involved in the wrong-doing and money-laundering. Those two books are part of my own collection, next to the Trading Game of Gary Stevenson, just because there is a continuity from “The Trading Game” period to the GANG and the MAFIA-STATE. Anastasiadis was indeed involved in money-laundering and there are too many proofs for that. The worst part is that the collection of evidence includes the Tassos Papadopoulos administration (2003-2008) in addition to the Dimitris Christofias administration (2008-2013) as well. What happened in Cyprus is still kept hidden and the time it will be revealed, in detail, it will show something worse, the involvement of the European Commission and their own criminal activities..

Nicos Rafidhias studied Political Science and European integration before and during the creation of the European Union and the Euro Zone. 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicos-rafidhias/

Personal page: www.nicosrafidhias.co.uk

Business page: www.officeofis.co.uk

This article is part of his recent book regarding the boom and bust of corporations and countries. 

END OF PART II

The Cyprus bankruptcy - The "before" and the "after" (part III)

 

In a similar situation, the British government faced a shocking devaluation of the Sterling pound during Liz Truss' administration, losing markets’ trust. What was the difference in that incident? Due to the danger of the Sterling pound to be plunged for good and for the long term and of course due to the danger of losing their seats due to the election that looked inevitable, they forced Liz Truss to resign.

The period of Liz Truss' administration brought to my mind the administration of Demetris Christofias in Cyprus, ten years earlier. As I assume, Liz Truss never heard of Demetris Christofias or ever paid attention to what happened to Cyprus ten years earlier. She just planned to increase the debt level of the United Kingdom that unfortunately for her had already reached the Ponzi levels, where nobody is willing to lend more. Liz Truss, even today claims that there was nothing wrong with her governance. Although, whoever has experience of Ponzi financing can easily understand and connect the practices of Christofias administration with what happened ten years later in the UK.

Those two financial crises prove the fatal mistakes of each private or public administration. Every administration claims to hire or appoint the best. Although, each administration hires or appoints based on friendly relationships or political benefits, translated as votes.. As a result, the administration is full of incompetent members or fraudsters that sooner or later create chaos. Cyprus is a perfect example. We all know that people in the public administration are appointed in exchange of votes and they cover fraud practices like money-laundering and in recent years the sale of passports to international criminals.

Mafia-State is a whistleblower evidence of what was happening during Anastasiades' administration. Anastasiades was repeatedly linked with international fraudsters and money-laundering practices that shaken the European community. Even worse, the whole European community infrastructure is designed in a pattern that one century ago led to the collapse of the “Latin Monetary Union” that today nobody dares to mention.

One hundred years ago, the European people had another monetary union that because of fraud, corruption and incompetence had to be left to collapse in silence.

As history repeats first, first as tragedy and second as farce, Greece was expelled from LMU from 1908 to 1910 and they faced the same pattern a century later. This time Cyprus was added to the story. When you spend all your (national) money, someone will have to loan you some more, in order to keep the (monetary union) illusion alive. But, just because a loan is always a loan, you are first out of the Union unofficially, but you are out a few years later, officially..

End of part III