Democracy at Work - Richard Wolff

Ryan Smith

History 15A

Section 10: Fall 2013

9th September 2013

According to the video that I saw, Cyprus (an island located in the middle of Turkey and Israel) is going through an economic crisis that has affected and shook the island that once boasted their economy with tourism, investment opportunities and shipping. According the Richard Wolff author of “Democracy at work” mentions that Cyprus is in a deep financial crisis. And this is mainly due to banks failing. Just like the economic crisis that sent shockwaves around the world, Cyprus has hit the wall just like that. A lot of people invested in banking, because Cyprus was known for its security in terms of banking. Back in the 1990’s banks offered depositors who had any currency in exchange for Euros and high interest rates, which at that time was considered of high value. At one point the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of Cyprus multiplied 5-8 times was deposited in banks. Once the money is in the account, banks started using depositor’s money for investments. After a few huge negative investments, banks eventually fell down to their knees because they couldn’t afford to payback the money they had taken from depositors. So the government of Cyprus enforced strict regulations that gave them the authority to remove money from individual bank accounts and give it back to the banks as bailout money to remove them from bad debts. That is a pure example of a non-democratic country. The people of Cyprus had to bear the consequences imposed on them by the government. They raised taxes without consultations and limited themselves from social programs/welfare. The people of Cyprus went on strike. They stopped working, all services and goods were put on hold the entire country came to a stand still until their voices were not heard. This is a classic example of a non-democratic country.

Comparing Cyprus to the United States, they also felt the better half of burn in 2008. Millions of people went out of work;...