Today, March 25th, is Greek Independence Day, but in Athens, just as in Nicosia, there is little reason to celebrate. In the wee hours of Monday morning, the Eurogroup and Cypriot government representatives reached an agreement in principle on a new deal that would "bail out" Cyprus and its suffering economy. According to reports coming out of Brussels, the new plan proposes a 30% "haircut" on deposits of over €100,000 in the Bank of Cyprus, which will, as a result, be "saved." This plan differs from last week's agreement—which was later voted down unanimously by the Cypriot parliament—which called for a 6.75% haircut of all Cypriot bank deposits of €100,000 or less, and a 9.99% levy of all deposits over €100,000.
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