Damien

The reality is that this was a difficult and complicated scenario which had no easy answers and whose cause will be reflected upon for many months. People can engage with anti-German retoric or conspiracy theories but what they cannot do is come up with an alternative answer to how to solve this case. What else could have been done? Each other outcome was imperfect, ripe for conspiracy theorists, and would have caused harm. Cyprus were never going to walk away from this in a way which would have pleased it's people.

The dye was cast when the banks collapsed. As far as I am aware none of the other countries that have required an EU Bailout had such a distorted offshore banking industry. It meant that the banks could take the entire country with it and made the politics of the bailout especially difficult.