Central Perk

luni, 18 martie 2013

Plugging the link leaks, part 1 – reclaim links you are throwing away

Plugging the link leaks, part 1 – reclaim links you are throwing away

Posted: 15 Mar 2013 09:51 AM PDT

In London hundreds of SEOs have gathered for LinkLove, and as it is a day of sharing tips on getting more links, we thought we would join in.

As the easy self-publishing or submission tactics fall by the wayside, link building has become a far more creative, and time-consuming, process.

But at SEOptimise, as well as building links through content, we also regularly boost clients’ link profiles without typing a word. There’s no asking for links, nor risking the wrath of Google's anti-spam team.

This is link reclamation – fixing existing links that point to broken or inefficiently redirected pages on your site.

As Ian Lurie pointed out in one of his excellent webinars last year, before worrying about various creative methods of generating links, "get the #@@!#@$ easy links" first. And link reclamation is just that – it might take a couple of hours to complete, but can be a boost for any campaign.

Tools

What you'll need for your link reclamation project:

Access to Google Webmaster Tools
Open Site Explorer, Majestic SEO, Ahrefs, or the backlink data tool of your choice
Screaming Frog SEO Spider, or a crawler/server response code checker of your choice
Excel/Google Spreadsheet (example version for you to keep here)

Finding your broken links

Now, the quick-win version of this process is simply to put together a list of all the broken URLs on your site that have external links pointing to them, ready to put 301 redirects in place. There's nothing wrong with doing this, and it will certainly give you the boost of reclaiming your lost authority, but sometimes we need to know where all the broken links are.

This is so we can see which broken links we should redirect, and which we want to attempt to have fixed on the source URL. Plus, as an agency, it can be advantageous to be able to report all the links we have reclaimed.

So, let's put together as comprehensive a list of broken links pointing to our target site as possible.

Backlink data

Our first port of call is backlink data. Go to the tool of your choice and look up your site. We're using Open Site Explorer in the examples here, but Majestic and Ahrefs both also provide perfect data for this. Within the inbound links tab select links from "only external" pages and either "pages on this sub-domain" or "pages on this root domain", depending on the scope of your project.

Grabbing the backlink data from Open Site Explorer

There's a whole range of metrics we could use to investigate, but to keep things moving, delete all the columns except for URL, anchor text, page authority, domain authority, followable and target URL.

Doing this allows us to analyse our broken links by PA or DA, and see which are no-followed, helping us decide which links to 301, and which to reach out to have fixed to the correct URL. If you are not using OSE, then Majestic SEO and Ahrefs have their own importance metrics.

Now to find our broken links. Copy the entries in the target URL column, and paste them into a new spreadsheet. Use the remove duplicates feature within the data tab, and save as a .csv or .txt file.

Removing duplicate URLs in Excel

Fire up Screaming Frog, and select 'List' from the mode menu. Choose your file of URLs, and start crawling. Once the crawl is complete, select the Response Codes tab and filter to 'Client Error (4XX)'. You now have a complete list of URLs that external sites are linking to which don't exist on your server.

No URLs on the list? Congratulations! You have no broken links to fix, and can crack on with working on ways to generate fresh links. If, like most sites we've worked with, you have URLs here, export the list.

Exporting all pages resulting i a 404 error from Screaming Frog

Finding 302 redirects

Still in screaming Frog, filter to 'Redirection (3xx)', and order the results by the 'Status Code' column. Are there any 302 redirects in there? If so, export this list, open in Excel and make the data a table (ctrl+T is the shortcut). Filter by Status Code to find the 302s, and copy the data. Open your exported list of URLs resulting in 404 errors, and paste your 302 data into the spreadsheet. You now have a complete list of linked-to pages we want to fix.

Getting clever

It's time to prune data again. Delete or hide every column until you are left with just the Address and Status Code columns. Once ready, select all the 404/302 data and copy. Go back to your spreadsheet with OSE data. You need to paste in the two columns, either to the right of the OSE data, or in a new sheet (however you prefer to work).

Now for the (relatively) clever bit. Add a column to the right of your OSE data, and call it 'status code', then turn all the OSE data into a table. Now we are going use a VLOOKUP function in the new 'status code' column to have Excel tell us which of our OSE links match the 404 errors we found in Screaming Frog.

The code we used is =IFERROR(VLOOKUP(F:F,I:J,2,FALSE),”"), with F:F specifying the Target URL column in the OSE data, and I:J the Address and Status Code columns respectively in the Screaming Frog data. (A big hat-tip to Joe and Tamsin for patiently helping me with Excel formulas!)

Alternatively use the Insert Function wizard in the Formulas tab to work through the process, though you will have to add the IFERROR part afterwards.

Our 'status code' column should now contain the code from the Screaming Frog data each time one of our external links points to a URL that returns a 404 or 302 code. Simply filter the source code column by 404 and 400 to give you a complete list of broken URLs. You can then reorder this list by PA, DA or by which are followed.

You may also wish to add a ‘date fixed’ column, so you can record when the redirect or edit is in place, and the link starts passing its sweet, sweet authority to your target site.

You can also filter by 302, and instantly have a list of redirects to be changed to 301s, and all the links that suddenly pass all their potential link authority to show your client or boss. Not bad for a few minutes' work!

Two sources are better than one

So are we done? Not quite; many SEOs work on the premise that using more than one data source is prudent.

Once you have done this process, it's very quick to do the same again from an alternative source; in our example I might now use Ahrefs. Once we have all my 404s/302s from Ahrefs in a new tab in our spreadsheet, we can create a third tab to combine with the 404s from OSE, using the remove duplicates tool once again.

Of course, the sources cannot share quality metrics – just URL, anchor text and target URL. However, the advantage of using multiple sources to find a greater number of broken links to fix is worthwhile, and we can still filter on individual sheets.
Google Webmaster Tools crawl errors.

To use every available source of external links leading to 404 errors, we need to use Google Webmaster Tools’ ‘Crawl Errors’ report (found under Diagnostics in the menu).

Alas, this is where things become a little more frustrating. As no doubt many of you know, it is impossible to cleanly download a list of each 404 URL address and the links pointing to it, despite the information being available on screen. Plus GWT is not always as up-to-date as we would like. So, we have to use a workaround.

What you can download from GWT is all the broken URLs Google has found on your site. So, our first step is to download this list as a .csv file by selecting Health, then Crawl Errors in the left-hand navigation.

Finding external links resulting in 404 errors in Google Webmaster Tools

Select the 'Not found' links, and hit the download button. This file can then be imported using Screaming Frog's list mode, and all the reported broken URLs checked. Any URLs that are now returning 200 or 301 status codes should be removed from your list, and marked as 'fixed' within GWT.

We now have a smaller and accurate list of the broken URLs on our site. Create a new tab in the spreadsheet with the broken links we found in our backlink tool, and create headings for URL, target URL and status code. Unfortunately, there's now some manual work involved; how much depends on how many 404 errors GWT is reporting.

Select each error in turn within GWT
Choose the 'Linked from' tab
Copy all the external URLs pointing to that URL
Paste these URLs in the URL column in your spreadsheet
Add the target URL you have just been checking to the target URL column

As you can see, if you have a lot of reported external links, this can quickly become quite a pain. One helpful shortcut I have found is the Link Clump extension for Chrome. This allows you to create keyboard and mouse action shortcuts for opening or copying multiple links. I set one for copying all URLs selected to the clipboard. This makes it relatively quick to grab all the URLs for each reported error and paste them into my spreadsheet.

There's plenty of other great extensions/add-ons that can help with this, such as Scraper for Chrome and Multi Links for Firefox. Please suggest any favourites you have in the comments below!

After a bit of leg-work, you will now have a list of all the source links, and their target URL. The final stage is to ensure that these external URLs still exist, and still link to our site. Doing this is a two stage process, both using the same VLOOKUP method we used earlier.

Copy all the source URLs and paste into a new spreadsheet, then save as a .csv file. Now go back to Screaming Frog and upload the list and crawl all the URLs. Firstly go to Response Codes and filter for any redirects. If you have some you need to export the list.

Open this list and copy the redirect destination URLs, then add these to your master list of URLs from GWT. Next use the same VLOOKUP methodology to remove any URLs that result in a 301 or 302 – we don't want them in our external link list as they no longer exist, but do want the redirect targets, in case our links are there!

Now go back to Screaming Frog and filter for any client errors (400/404s). If there are any, again export then use the VLOOKUP method to remove them from our list of external links from GWT.

The second step is to check they are still linking to you. Copy the edited column of URLs reported by GWT, and save to (yep, yet another) .csv file. Upload in Screaming Frog and go to the Configuration menu and select Custom to add a bespoke filter. Enter your domain, with or without subdomain depending on your project, and set to 'does not contain'.

Creating a custom filter in Screaming Frog

Crawl your URL list, then head to the Custom tab and filter to your bespoke filter. This then shows you all the URLs that no longer point to you. Export, copy into your main spreadsheet and VLOOKUP one last time and delete these links. You'll need to add some form of marker text in a second column so you can see which ones to delete, or use the Status column.

Side note: You may wish to keep a record of these to try and get your site back on them if still relevant – it may be they simply removed the link to you because it was a broken page. Being able to write to the site saying, "You used to link to us and we'd love to be featured once again", is a great reason to have to contact these sites.

Your final list

So, after a lot of editing, you have a list of broken external links reported by Google Webmaster Tools, plus the page they are linking to. Add these to your master list (the URLs from OSE and Ahrefs), de-duplicate and you have your final list of links to reclaim.

Using the individual sheets for each source you can check each link for importance, deciding which ones to try and have corrected, and which you will simply put a 301 redirect in place for. Of course, as we have recently learned, 301 redirects possibly pass all their authority, but many still prefer to have clean links wherever possible (as previous studies have shown some authority is lost).

So that's it. It might seem a little complex or time-consuming at first, but the process only takes a couple of hours, or less if Webmaster Tools hasn't reported too many errors. The rewards vary of course, but if you have an older domain, or one that went through a site migration without SEO assistance, there can be many broken links. We've found several hundred links for clients before doing this – worth getting for any site.

To make things a little easier (as this is a long post to follow!), we’ve put together a basic version you can access and copy for your own projects.

There’s plenty more that can be done of course. Another good use of time is finding the sites that linked to you at one point, but no longer do so, as excellently laid out here by Ethan Lloyd at Seer Interactive, and we’ll be bringing you more as well. Happy reclaiming!

Seth's Blog : Communication is a path, not an event

Communication is a path, not an event

The other day, I heard the CEO of a large corporation drone on for twenty minutes. He was pitching a large group of strangers, reading them a long, prepared speech that was largely irrelevant to their needs. They weren't there to hear him and in fact, weren't even able to hear him over the buzz in their heads... this was classic interuption, no permission granted.

If you'd interviewed the 150 people in the room an hour later, no one could have told you a single thing about what he had said.

If your tactic is to have a one-shot, the equivalent of a pickup line in a singles' bar, it's pretty hopeless. You can't sell anything complex or risky in this way.

On the other hand, what if he had taken three minutes (just three) to say, "Let's talk." Give out his personal contact info or an easy way (and a good reason!) to engage with his staff. And then give up the podium and let the event go forward.

Don't sell us anything but the burning desire to follow up. The point of his talk wasn't to get a new customer (impossible), nor was it to get through the talk and get it over with (silly and selfish). No, the point of the talk should have been to open the door to have a better, individual conversation soon.

"Let's talk," uses today's interaction to make it more likely you have one tomorrow. And a dialogue leads to connection, which leads to trust which leads to engagement.

Yes, it's surprisingly difficult in today's oversaturated communications world to succeed even with an offer of "let's talk," but it's demonstrably better than the alternative.

Drip, drip, drip.

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duminică, 17 martie 2013

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Poker or Chicken? Cyprus Archbishop Says "Leave the Eurozone and Readopt the Cyprus Pound"
Cyprus Bailout Math; Can Depositors Be Left Whole?
Cyprus Details: Blackmail, Bulldozer Threats, Bank Holiday to Tuesday; Calls to Exit Eurozone; Reflections on Arrogance and Idiocy

Poker or Chicken? Cyprus Archbishop Says "Leave the Eurozone and Readopt the Cyprus Pound"

Posted: 17 Mar 2013 10:06 PM PDT

EU officials are now swarming over Cyprus threatening to cut off funds to Laiki , Cyprus' second largest bank if the deal does not go through. Nonetheless, Cyprian politicians are balking because they know what will happen to those who go along with EU blackmail threats.

Making matters difficult for President Nicos Anastasiades, the Cyprian government controls only 28 of 56 seats in the chamber and needs support and backing from two deputies of a small pro-European party.

Today's vote was postponed for one obvious reason. The votes are not there.

As one would expect Cypriot authorities in revised deal talks.

Cyprus' embattled president was on Sunday in talks with Brussels and political rivals to ease the terms of a planned levy on smaller deposit holders as he tried to scrape together a parliamentary majority for a €10bn bailout for the debt-laden island.

A revised deal being discussed in Nicosia, with the blessing of the European Commission, would shift more of the burden on to deposits larger than €100,000, according to officials involved in the talks.

"The ECB officials were very blunt," said one Cypriot official familiar with the discussions. "There are serious fears of contagion regarding Italy and Spain if this legislation doesn't go through."

Cypriot officials insisted no levy on smaller depositors was impossible. One senior Cypriot official involved in the talks said that because about 35 per cent of all deposits are below the threshold, exempting them would mean a rate so high for the rest that it would no longer be viewed as a tax.

Archbishop Chrysostomos, the island's influential spiritual leader, called for Cyprus to leave deposits intact, leave the eurozone and readopt its former currency, the Cyprus pound.

Lie of the Day

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades now states "depositors would be offered bank shares covering the full amount of their losses, while those who left their savings in banks for another two years would be rewarded with bonds backed by future income from exploiting Cyprus's natural gas deposits."

The Mish response is "Please be serious". Bank shares are worthless, and if they are not, they should be and soon will be. As for leaving money in the bank for two more years, subject to still more confiscation at the whims of the EU, I also say "please be serious".

"Bailout Math"

The Financial Times stated "The depositor levy was demanded by a German-led group of creditor countries to bring down the bailout's price tag from €17bn."

I went through the Cyprus Bailout Math addressing the question "can depositors be left whole?" The answer is yes, up to €17.7 billion (and depositors were only hit with €5.8 billion).

Poker or Chicken?

Some have likened events in Cyprus to the world's largest game of poker. Advantaged "chicken" is not more like it.

The Financial Times reports "The message, delivered by the ECB's chief negotiator, Jörg Asmussen, meant that if no deal was reached, Laiki would collapse, probably bringing the island's largest bank down with it, and saddling Nicosia with a €30bn bill to reimburse accounts covered by the country's deposit guarantee scheme. It was money Nicosia did not have. All of the island's account holders would be wiped out."

Apparently this is another one of those "offers you cannot refuse". The ECB was willing to inflict €30 billion in damages on Cyprus to collect €5.8 billion from Cyprian citizens.

Contagion-Begging Actions

What is someone in Greece, Spain, or Italy supposed to think?

Consider Spain. By a 526 to 86 vote, the nannycrats in Brussels just passed a regulation that will require a country to accept a bailout if offered. (Please see An Offer You Cannot Refuse; EU Passes Law Forcing Countries to Take Bailout; Is Spain the First Target?)

Also note that EU Court Strikes Down Spain's Eviction Law.

Think about the parlay of EU contagion-begging actions for a second.

Spanish banks will not be able to evict homeowners, who in turn will be give reason to default. Losses will soar at Spanish banks and they are insolvent already.
The "Offer You Cannot Refuse" action by the EU is sure to arouse suspicion of a forced bailout in Spain.
Cyprus actions will heighten fears of bank takeovers, capital controls, and theft of deposits via confiscation.

Reader Scott had this pertinent comment:

"This has simply got to be ruinous for legitimate business in Cyprus. Right off the bat every business in Cyprus is having part of its capital confiscated. Governments may not understand this but a lot of people and businesses are on a razors edge. That $1000 rent payment may not withstand a $67.50 haircut. A monthly payroll of $100,000 might not be made if 10% of the businesses cash is seized."

My friend Bernd who lives in Germany had these comments. "Judging by the German forums on Focus, Der Spiegel, SZ, FAZ and Die Zeit, there is hardly any support for this action. The name calling and swearing is rather blunt. These guys did not study their Machiavelli. He said roughly if you hurt people, you must never hurt all of them at once."

The closest Machiavelli quote I can find is "If you need to injure someone, do it in such a way that you do not have to fear their vengeance."

"F" the EU

It will not stop here. There will be more demands and more haircuts. Staying in the eurozone cannot be worth the price.

It is high time something be crammed straight down the throats of the EU and for that matter, straight down the throats of anyone in Cyprus parliament who votes for the imposed terms.

I encourage 100% of Cyprus citizens take every penny out of their banks the second the "bank holiday" ends.

Justifiable vengeance is coming, in spades.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Wine Country Conference

I am hosting an economic conference on April 5 in Sonoma, California. Proceeds go to the Les Turner ALS Foundation (Lou Gehrig's Disease).

Please see My Wife Joanne Has Passed Away; Stop and Smell the Lilacs for my association with the disease.

To learn about the economic conference with world-class speakers including John Hussman, Michael Pettis, Jim Chanos, John Mauldin, Mike "Mish" Shedlock, Chris Martenson with guest moderator Lauren Lyster and other Special Guests, please visit Wine Country Conference April 5, 2013

Cyprus Bailout Math; Can Depositors Be Left Whole?

Posted: 17 Mar 2013 06:36 PM PDT

Inquiring minds are wondering about the terms of the bailouts imposed upon citizens of Cyprus. I am one of them.

In Cyprus Details: Blackmail, Bulldozer Threats, Bank Holiday to Tuesday; Reflections on Arrogance and Idiocy, I made the claim that Cyprus depositors need not be liable for any of this.

Many people have emailed that much of the money in Cyrus accounts was via illegal inflows from Russia. OK, is that a reason to screw every Cyprus depositor, even the small accounts below the €100,000 deposit guarantee?

I suggest not. I object to the entire scheme. First the bondholders should have been wiped out. If that was not enough then the deposits above the €100,000 deposit guarantee should have been hit. Then and only then should the average citizen been hit.

And guess what. The average Cyprus citizen would likely not have been hit. Instead, the EU mandated a "screw every citizen" policy to protect the senior bondholders.

Cyprus Bailout Math

What I wrote above was a guess, but an accurate one. Reader Jeff Baryshnik, Baryshnik Capital Management Inc., in Toronto provides some specifics in an email to me a few hours ago.

Hi Mish

I read with interest your article on the Cyprus bailout deal. After a quick review of the most recent financial statements of the four publicly listed Cypriot banks as shown on their websites, it is notable that a simple alternative proposal could protect the country from bankruptcy and make its depositors whole.

By wiping out 100% of the equity, 100% of the bondholders, and 17% of the banks' liability to central banks, the Cypriots could stabilize their banking system (based on the 5.8Bn EUR figure being discussed) without penalizing local savers.

Instead of raising 5.8Bn EUR from depositors, it could raise 1.4Bn from combined market cap, 2.0Bn from bondholders and preferred shareholders, and 2.4Bn of the 14.3Bn in combined Central Bank loans (Cypriot and ECB) it has on its books. This assumes zero contribution from the Cypriot subsidiaries of foreign banks so it may be conservative.

If the banking system is bankrupt, anything other than an Alice-in-Wonderland recovery system suggests that the order of liquidation is shareholders, preferred shareholders, debt holders, Central Bank creditors, and THEN depositors. If 10Bn or even 17Bn EUR is truly required, then coincidentally up to 17.7Bn EUR is available from equity holders, debt holders, and Central Bank creditors without impairing a euro cent from depositors.

I received other emails noting that much of the money in Cyprus was "hot money" from Russia seeing unfair tax advantages.

So what? Is that any reason to punish every Cyprus citizen? Clearly the answer must be "no".

Perhaps one can create additional spots for illegal deposits (if they could be proven), and one could (and should) distinguish between deposits above and below the deposit guarantee limit, but otherwise, the order suggested by Baryshnik seems quite reasonable.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Cyprus Details: Blackmail, Bulldozer Threats, Bank Holiday to Tuesday; Calls to Exit Eurozone; Reflections on Arrogance and Idiocy

Posted: 17 Mar 2013 10:58 AM PDT

As details of the EU's heavy handed blackmail of Cyprus come pouring in, the volatile reactions mount as expected.

Cyprus President Statement on Confiscation of Accounts

Here is the Statement by the President of the Republic Mr Nicos Anastasiades. Points five and six are interesting:

5. It saves provident and pension funds and avoids taking other tough measures such as wage and pension cuts that were put on the negotiations table.

6. It avoids further recession and the risk of the vicious circle of a second memorandum.

Care to bet?

Man Threatens Bank with Bulldozer

The BBC reports Man threatens bank with bulldozer

Threats to Vote Against Action

The Financial Times reports

"President Nicos Anastasiades faces an uphill task to persuade reluctant lawmakers, after pledging that he would "never" accept a haircut of deposits as a condition for a bailout by international lenders. His governing coalition controls 28 seats in the 56-member parliament but several members of the Democratic party, the junior partner, have threatened to vote against the bill."

Cyprus Parliament Delays Vote

What follows threats of a "no" vote should be easy to predict: Cyprus parliament delays vote on bank deposits tax.

"Cyprus' parliament on Sunday postponed a debate and vote on a controversial levy on all bank deposits that the cash-strapped country's creditors had demanded in exchange for €10 billion ($13 billion Cdn) in rescue money. The vote, which had been expected later Sunday, has been pushed back to Monday afternoon, parliamentary official Antonis Koutalianos said. The announcement set off an immediate scramble among top European officials, with reports that the European Central Bank was pressuring Cypriot authorities to hold the vote without delay."

UK to Compensate Troops and Government Workers

Chancellor George Osborne says the UK will compensate any British troops in Cyprus hit by plans to introduce a bank levy as part of a £9bn EU bailout.

Greece Exempt From Haircuts

Ekathimerini reports "the account haircut does not affect bank accounts in Cypriot bank branches based in Greece, according to sources from the Greek Finance Ministry."

German Finance Minister Wanted 40% Haircuts

Also from Ekathimerini: "Cyprus state broadcaster CyBC reported on Saturday that German Finance Minister actually entered the Eurogroup meeting on Friday proposing a 40 percent haircut on Cypriot bank accounts. Sarris stated on Saturday that this had also been the proposal of the International Monetary Fund."

Communist Party Proposes Eurozone Referendum

The Financial Times notes "The Akel communist party denounced the deal, proposing a referendum on whether Cyprus should remain a member of the eurozone. The Democratic party (Diko), which supported Mr Anastasiades in last month's presidential election, urged Cypriots to remain calm, while claiming Cyprus had been "blackmailed" at the eurogroup meeting."

Also from the above link "Yannis Stournaras, Greek finance minister, said depositors holding funds in Greek branches of Cypriot bank would not be affected. The Greek networks of Bank of Cyprus and Laiki (Popular) Bank, the largest Cypriot banks, would be split off from the parent banks and transferred to a Greek state bank, perhaps as early as Tuesday"

Bank Holiday to Tuesday

Ekathimerini reports Nicosia declares Tuesday a bank holiday, but ECB urges for action

The Cypriot cabinet has declared Tuesday a bank holiday, for fear of capital flight, and this may even be stretched to Wednesday, as depositors are certain to withdraw huge sums from the Cypriot banks after the haircut imposed.

Nicosia postponed from Sunday to Monday the tabling in Parliament of the bill including the measures for the Cypriot bailout – including a bank account haircut and a tax hike on interest and corporate earnings – but the European Central Bank insists on a rapid voting because there are already signs a domino effect will follow across European lenders and markets from Monday.

There is genuine fear of market unrest on Monday morning when stocks may crumble in the eurozone and bank accounts in other southern European bank may suffer.

Skai radio reported on Sunday that the Bank of Greece has sent between 4 and 5 billion euros to Cyprus in order to help Cypriot banks respond to cash requirements by their clients.

Reflections on Arrogance and Idiocy

Note the ridiculousness of the situation: Greece is sending cash to Cyprus.

Every step of the way, the nannycrat idiots in Brussels have underestimated the seriousness of every situation, the amount of money involved to fix them, and the public blowback in response to their policy decisions.

Cyprus is tiny. But the ramifications of this move will not be. The taxation of all deposit accounts in Cyprus was a huge mistake. It is only going to net the EU 5.8 billion Euros.

Many people have emailed that much of the money in Cyrus accounts was via illegal inflows from Russia. OK, is that a reason to screw every Cyprus depositor, even the small accounts below the €100,000 deposit guarantee?

I suggest not. I object to the entire scheme. First the bondholders should have been wiped out. If that was not enough then the deposits above the €100,000 deposit guarantee should have been hit. Then and only then should the average citizen been hit.

And guess what. The average Cyprus citizen would likely not have been hit. Instead, the EU mandated a "screw every citizen" policy to protect the senior bondholders.

This is not going to sit well in Cyprus or anywhere else, and all for a mere EU 5.8 billion Euros.

The stupidity and arrogance of these nannycrats is staggering. The nannycrats think this will stop "contagion". They are nuts.

By my accounting, the need to stop contagion has spread to Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Italy, and Cyprus. France is soon on the way.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Seth's Blog : On feeling small

On feeling small

"To make us feel small in the right way is a function of art; men can only make us feel small in the wrong way." E. M. Forster

The small feeling produced by art comes from dancing with our muse and allowing our inspiration to take us somewhere the resistance would rather avoid. We feel small in the face of magic and connection. Feeling small gives us the guts to create something bigger, bigger than ourselves, the art of human connection and the gift of generosity.

On the other hand, the critic who seeks to beef himself up at our expense diminishes no one but himself.

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sâmbătă, 16 martie 2013

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Contagion-Begging Actions; Expect Bank Runs Following Cyprus Idiocy; Have Money in a Spanish Bank? Take It Out Now!

Posted: 16 Mar 2013 03:20 PM PDT

In Cyprus, a decision was made to screw savers with a 6.75% to 9.9% "Tax" on deposits.

Supposedly this move was made to "avoid unsettling investors in larger countries and sparking a new round of market contagion."

In reality, the action was mandated theft, imposed by EU officials to protect senior bondholders.

How can such an action do anything but cause contagion?

The move is expected to raise a mere 5.8 billion euros according to Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, leader of the euro-area ministers. Fallout from this action will cost far more than that.

Contagion-Begging Actions

What is someone in Greece, Spain, or Italy supposed to think?

Consider Spain. By a 526 to 86 vote, the nannycrats in Brussels just passed a regulation that will require a country to accept a bailout if offered. (Please see An Offer You Cannot Refuse; EU Passes Law Forcing Countries to Take Bailout; Is Spain the First Target?)

Also note that EU Court Strikes Down Spain's Eviction Law.

Think the parlay of EU contagion-begging actions for a second.

Spanish banks will not be able to evict homeowners, who in turn will be give reason to default. Losses will soar at Spanish banks and they are insolvent already.
The "Offer You Cannot Refuse" action by the EU is sure to arouse suspicion of a forced bailout in Spain.
Cyprus actions will heighten fears of bank takeovers, capital controls, and theft of deposits via confiscation.

Expect Bank Runs

Why would any rational thinking Spanish person keep any money in Spanish banks? They shouldn't and I suspect they won't.

Moreover, this is bound to further inflame the situation in Italy, where Beppe Grillo's Five Star Movement is already the largest party.

In short, this action was one of the single stupidest things the EU could have done and they crammed it down the throats of all Cyprus citizens, hoping to stop the spread of contagion.

My friend Bernd who lives in Germany had these comments. "Judging by the German forums on Focus, Der Spiegel, SZ, FAZ and Die Zeit, there is hardly any support for this action. The name calling and swearing is rather blunt. These guys did not study their Machiavelli. He said roughly if you hurt people, you must never hurt all of them at once."

The closest Machiavelli quote I can find is "If you need to injure someone, do it in such a way that you do not have to fear their vengeance."

Rest assured there is going to be vengeance over this action. The Cyprus government will fall, and deposit fear will spread everywhere.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Wine Country Conference

I am hosting an economic conference on April 5 in Sonoma, California. Proceeds go to the Les Turner ALS Foundation (Lou Gehrig's Disease).

Please see My Wife Joanne Has Passed Away; Stop and Smell the Lilacs for my association with the disease.

To learn about the economic conference with world-class speakers including John Hussman, Michael Pettis, Jim Chanos, John Mauldin, Mike "Mish" Shedlock, Chris Martenson with guest moderator Lauren Lyster and other Special Guests, please visit Wine Country Conference April 5, 2013

Cyprus Rapes Citizens with 6.75% to 9.9% "Tax" on Deposits; Contagion of Idiocy is Everywhere

Posted: 16 Mar 2013 08:55 AM PDT

The hot news out of Cyprus today is the direct confiscation of depositor's money via an alleged tax on deposits of 6.75 percent on amounts less than 100,000 euros and 9.9 percent above that.

The measures will raise 5.8 billion euros, Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who leads the group of euro-area ministers, told reporters early today after 10 hours of talks in Brussels. The euro region's bailout kitty and, possibly, the International Monetary Fund will look to make up the shortfall. A partial "bail-in" of junior bondholders is also possible.

Funds to pay the levy were frozen in accounts immediately, ECB Executive Board Member Joerg Asmussen said.

Officials have struggled to find an agreement that would rescue Cyprus, which accounts for just half of a percent of the euro region's economy, without unsettling investors in larger countries and sparking a new round of market contagion.

Read that last paragraph carefully. Officials raped Cyprus citizens to avoid "unsettling investors in larger countries".

Here's the deal. Large investors should have risk. The nannycrats and thugs in Europe still don't see it this way and this is the most blatant example of theft yet, all in the name of preventing "contagion".

Contagion of Idiocy is Everywhere.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Damn Cool Pics

California Conservation Corps members taught their big, country-ish boss to dance! [Video]

Posted: 15 Mar 2013 08:17 PM PDT

Not the unsuspecting members of the California Conservation Corps who were wowed by the unexpected groove of their lumberjack-looking coworker.

SEO Blog

What Do QR Codes Mean To Your Ecommerce Site?

Posted: 16 Mar 2013 07:33 AM PDT

QR codes are a type of bar code that are scanned by smart phones. Rather than the traditional multi-width bar lineup, though, they appear to be a square of multi-spaced pixels. It is likely that, even if you are not sure you know what a QR code is, you have...
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What Are The Most Exciting New Web Design Trends?

Posted: 15 Mar 2013 11:05 PM PDT

The web design industry is evolving all of the time. Although there is no question that this is exciting, it can also be immensely frustrating for those who work in the field, as well as website owners who have an amazing, innovative site one week, only for a new trend...
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luni, 18 martie 2013

Plugging the link leaks, part 1 – reclaim links you are throwing away

Plugging the link leaks, part 1 – reclaim links you are throwing away

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Finding your broken links

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Communication is a path, not an event

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luni, 18 martie 2013

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Finding your broken links

Backlink data

Finding 302 redirects

Getting clever

Two sources are better than one

Your final list

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duminică, 17 martie 2013

More Recent Articles

sâmbătă, 16 martie 2013

Pagini

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Arhivă blog

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