The Cyprus Bailout and Beyond (+20 pages)
The long-awaited bailout of the Cypriot banking system and public finances was agreed in a Memorandum of Understanding between the Cypriot government and the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund at the beginning of April 2013.
In the pages that follow I present facets of the Cyprus and Eurozone situation that led up to this fateful agreement in as much nitty gritty factual detail as I have been able to muster.
I have been amazed by the outpouring of opinion on the Cyprus crisis through the media, Twitter and individual blogs. While there is much great analysis and factual reporting on the crisis there is also a gargantuan slick of crisis-junkie white noise where half-baked facts and theories are hammered together to fit preconceived frameworks of blame allocation - whether this be towards Germany, the IMF, the Eurozone, Cypriot banks, or the Cypriot political leadership.
My aim in putting together these pages is to try and get beyond the blame game and its creation and bolstering of neat stereotypes. Not that I probably succeed entirely but my intention is to put forward a more nuanced understanding of what actually happened.
My Blog is not hugely user friendly. To see the many blog entries I've written about Cyprus and the
bailout click on 'Sitemap' at very bottom of this page in the footer and scroll down to 'Blog'.