COMEDY: Slight Problem In Cyprus Banking System
FUNNY STUFF
Clarke and Dawe on Cyprus banks.
Presenting Mr. Luka Busy, advisor to the European Central Bank.
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And right on cue from Reuters:
Cypriot parliament votes 29-27 to approve EU bailout...
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Not everyone pinched in Cyprus was Russian mafia.
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Woman Sold Home In Cyprus When Husband Died, Bank Kept The Money
Only three weeks ago the widow was confident she was finally putting her painful past behind her. In the space of three days she had sold her house on Cyprus, the island where the couple ran a popular scuba-diving business, located to a new home in the UK and found a job. “I was set on moving on after Gary died last year and had everything in motion when overnight my world was turned upside down again,” said the mother-of-two from Welling, Kent.
“Suddenly I was caught up in this nightmare scenario with the funds from the sale of my house frozen as a result of capital controls because of the crisis.”
The £155,000 proceeds from the sale of her villa in Paralimni, near Ayia Napa, hit her account two hours before close of business on March 15. The next day, EU officials announced that to qualify for a bailout the bankrupt island must enforce draconian measures, including an unprecedented tax on depositors with more than 100,000 euros (£85,000).
Sharon’s two accounts at the Bank of Cyprus, one set up especially for the transaction, were immediately frozen. The 55-year-old, who fears she could lose £42,000, said: “On the same day that the money went into the bank I sent an e-mail. In it I instructed them to transfer the funds, some of which were in euros and some in sterling, to the UK but on Saturday morning the news broke that Cypriot banks were in major financial difficulty.”
May 5, 2013 at 1:26 PM
Reader Comments (29)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgKo8gOT5JQ
Jalen Rose and Bill Simmons debate who would get the best table at a New York City nightclub: President Obama, Michael Jordan, Jay-Z, or LeBron.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKfWrlnFHis
Good new Grantland interview with Larry Bird
I'm assuming that was also my first year at UVa. Was it fall 1984, spring 1985?
I remember every player you mentioned on the Duke team, even Alarie. I was a sports reporter for WUVA FM starting my first year, and we would cover the games with live radio updates. I remember watching Bias destroy us as well as 5'3" Mugsy Bogues from Wake Forest. I also remember the morning Len Bias died, literally just a few hours after he was drafted by the Celtics.
Spring 1986, Bias' senior year. And cannot believe you mention Mugsy. Brings back memories.
You ever cover UVa golf? My good friend and HS teammate played for the Cavs, Alex Kepley. What was the UVa home course, Birdwood?
Check this out on Muggsy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7UkSJlmlO8
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn200/nbacardDOTnet/zz%20NBA%20Photo%20Gallery/y%20NBA%20etc/y%20Little%20Big%20Men%20n%20Giants/0%20Little%20Big%20Men/Tyrone%20Muggsy%20Bogues/-TyroneBogues004.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOGj8qM6hQ0
http://twitter.com/muggsybogues
Tyrone Curtis "Muggsy" Bogues (born January 9, 1965) is a retired American professional basketball player and current head coach of the United Faith Christian Academy boys' basketball team. The shortest player ever to play in the NBA, the 5 ft 3 in (1.60 m) Bogues played point guard for four teams during his 14-season career.
Continuing the hoops theme, check out this pre-draft clip of Victor Oladipo that was released yesterday. This guy is sick. Liz and I met him at Chipotle the other night. He's a great kid, super polite, smart, 3.4 GPA and graduated in just 3 years.
The video is completely sick.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dk4XNbRYhKA#!
Do all college kids eat at Chipotle? And to think I thought their IPO at $44 was ridiculous.
He was wearing flip flops, and he's no more than 6'3" without shoes, which makes his dunking all the more impressive. His wingspan is huge though, around 6'9". He smiled the whole time we talked to him, and is just a great kid. He has 3 sisters, no brothers, and one sister is deaf and goes to Galludet in DC, one is a lawyer and his twin sister is going to dental school next year. She's finishing school in 3 years also, and graduates from Univ. of Maryland. He's now projected as a top-6 pick in the NBA draft by Chad Ford at ESPN.
Chipotle is a ridiculous stock. We are going to see the Chipotle style go to other food categories. People are flocking to the organic, no hormone meats. It's a huge winner.
SKIN
Nothing but net is a damn sweet sound. And as you know, he would have gone to Maryland but they didn't think he was good enough and chose not to recruit him.
Skin-I prefer the sound of my golf ball hitting the stick (I'm obviously not putting) and falling into the cup. But, all net is nice too, if it comes from the hand of a dude wearing a Duke uniform. Up the Blue Devils, down the Tar Holes (Wahoos & Terps too)!!
I'm glad you know this stuff because it's one of my favorite subjects. Some quick thoughts.
In & Out burger was profiled recently by Bloommberg and was valued at 2 to 3 billion -- and that's with just 82 stores. I think the next big thing could be a national chain of burger joints who only use organic beef - no hormones. There are a couple of companies getting serious about this idea.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-04/youngest-american-woman-billionaire-found-with-in-n-out.html
I am also interested in this Chipotle style pizza chain start-up. All fresh ingredients, they make it in front of you and then bake it in 120 seconds.
Read this:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-28/assembly-line-pizza-draws-hungry-fast-casual-investors.html
I think every major fast food category can be upgraded in the Chipotle way.
http://www.businessweek.com/videos/2013-04-18/ells-says-chipotle-could-be-new-fast-food-model
They are all quick and worth checking out. Grass fed beef, no hormones.
http://smashburger.com/
http://www.elevationburger.com/EB.php
http://burgerlounge.com/
http://www.bareburger.com/#
http://eater.com/archives/2013/04/18/shake-shack-ceo-randy-garutti-on-consistency-training-and-expansion-goals.php
Love me some Shake Shack
http://www.wired.com/business/2012/07/ff_lyfekitchens/all/
A good read.
http://www.lyfekitchen.com/restaurant.aspx
I hope.
My thoughts on food bizzes, for what they are worth:
-franchising is good for the franchisor (mostly), not the franchisee (mostly). Typically unilateral relationships that unwind in a hurry if the franchisor gets greedy, and most of them do (see franchisor kick-backs, err "rebates"). The staying power of franchised food bizzes is shaky, at best.
-chipotle is a great concept and worked because the founders in Denver kept it simple and created something that worked obviously, for them. Chipotle's food is average tasting, IMO. I would not own the stock for the following reasons: price and competition. The key to look for is not revenue growth (that is the illusion of building out units fast), but same store sales growth. Don't think Chipotle truly succeeds in this area, but have not looked at their #s in a while. BTW, most copycats fail, e.g., your pizza concept Blaze, but back to that later. Competition is there already for CMG and growing, though not with as deep pockets and the simplicity of the concept. Will CMG be around? Yes. Would I own them at the present price? No.
-pizza. Blaze is one of many CMG copycat pizza concepts popping up. Uncle Maddios in Atl is another with multi-units already and growing thru franchising. Maddios was founded by a guy I knew in my prior life in franchising, Matt Andrew, where he started at Moe's SW Grill, now part of Focus Brands (who fired Matt). The problems with pizza are many. Obviously, delivery by the national and powerful brands is an issue. People are willing to pay for being lazy. Local brand loyalty is a huge issue in pizza, as it is with burgers, although burger joints tend to be sit-down and not fast casual. Five guys is finding a niche in FC burger. Blaze better be beyond compare, or they may turn out to be a curiosity, which is not a recipe for food success. Blaze' 2 stores at $1.5mil-$2mil (btw, which is it? That is a huge range for revenues that low, and a red flag to me) is frankly, not that impressive for pizza. Pizza should be higher. To give you an idea, $250k-$500k is the range for Subway type units. Low end pizza units are at the $1.5-2mil range. High end $3mil+.
-FC future. Yes, some will IPO and be a success, mostly for the founding shareholders and early investors. But, I'd rather have my $ elsewhere. As a family friend and great investor once said to me, after I bought into the food franchise biz mind you, two things in life where you never invest $, and they both begin with "R"...restaurants and racehorses...