Mody, Ashoka, (2013), “Rolling the Dice in Cyprus”, www.project-syndicate.org, 21 March.
The task was never going to be an easy one: impose losses worth about €5.8 billion ($7.5 billion) on lenders to the Cypriot government and depositors with the country’s banks. And now that effort has led Europe to its latest impasse. In marathon negotiations, the Cypriot government, under the supervision of the troika (the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund), agreed to a one-time “tax” on bank deposits. But, despite an amendment to exempt accounts containing less than €20,000, the Cypriot parliament overwhelmingly rejected the plan, leaving Cyprus – and Europe – in limbo.