Writer Joel Taubman of the Virginia Advocate makes an excellent point here and it would be great to hear more student voices weighing in on this issue.

Europe’s Tyranny and Theft in Cyprus

“In a radical departure from previous aid packages, euro zone finance ministers want Cyprus savers to forfeit up to 9.9 percent of their deposits in return for a €10-billion ($13-billion) bailout to the island, financially crippled by its exposure to neighbouring Greece.” Reuters

In recent years, Cypriot banks have become an alleged haven for foreign, primarily Russian, deposits. The assets in these banks at one point reached eight times the divided island’s annual production value (known as GDP). So last July when the Greek half of Cyprus became the fifth country to ask its Euro partners for a government bailout, the EU government demanded some assurances.

The goal was to have these assurances also target what is seen as the tax dodging of the wealthy internationally. However, when the actual strings attached to the bailout were announced, they created a 1930s style rush on Cypriot banks. Electronic cash transfers were soon stopped as fears rose and ATMs ran out of cash.

The EU government in Brussels has made a great error and further step towards tyranny. Just because Cyprus is closer to Beirut than Brussels, that does not let the EU force this Island nation to choose between the possibility of defaulting on loans and the certainty of raiding family savings for nothing more than bank bonds barely worth the paper they are printed on.