Introduction

Abstract

In May 2013, Cyprus, an Eastern Mediterranean island populated by less than a million people and the third smallest economy in the eurozone, took over the headlines around the world, focusing the minds of investors from New York to London to Hong Kong. Nearly a year after it suffered devastating losses to its banking system in a desperate political arrangement to save Greece, Brussels offered Cyprus a financial Sophie’s Choice: either the island accepts punitive rescue terms, tantamount to a mass raid on saving accounts, or it goes under.