Cyprus goes cap in hand to Moscow
March 3, 2015 5 min. read

As Russian-backed separatists sneer at the Minsk II cease fire, extolling their newly conquered strategic pile of rubble, the town of Debaltseve, the Cypriot president Nicos Anastasiades flew to Moscow in a tizzy for a two-day official visit.

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Cyprus: How to kill two birds with one stone
June 16, 2014 5 min. read

Is a solution to the ongoing, four-decade long Cypriot crisis finally at hand? Judging by the insinuated words of Joe Biden during his recent visit to the divided island, so it may seem. It is no happenstance that the second time a U.S. vice president visits Cyprus after Lyndon Johnson’s visit of 1962 took place […]

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A Money Showdown, Moscow-Style, and Its Potential Consequences
October 2, 2013 7 min. read

  As President Obama clashes with Congress over spending authorizations and debt ceilings to keep funds flowing outward from the U.S. government, his counterpart in Moscow is celebrating a victory that has brought lawmakers’ own money flowing back into Russia. Six weeks ago, just as Washington’s budget battles began heating up yet again, Russian lawmakers […]

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Brave New Bailout
April 8, 2013 6 min. read

Writing in 1931, Aldous Huxley used Cyprus as the setting for a social experiment gone wrong in his dystopian novel “Brave New World.” The failed experiment sent a warning to future generations regarding the perils of excessive social tampering. Fast-forward nearly a century and Cyprus is yet again the setting, but this time for a […]

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Why Cyprus Matters
April 8, 2013 3 min. read

To American policymakers working through the sequester, Cyprus’ 10 billion euro bailout must sound like a rounding error. Context is key: the amount equals nearly half of Cyprus’ annual GDP. Euro-watchers first warned that the disjointed political path to the bailout agreement  — including a proposed tax on all Cyprus bank deposits — adds to the […]

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Reflections on Cyprus, Iran, Syria, and President Obama’s trip to Israel
March 24, 2013 1 min. read

On March 22, 2013, WVUM, the student radio of the University of Miami, invited me into its station in order to discuss the mess taking place in Cyprus. Despite talking for almost 15 minutes on the roots of the crisis in Cyprus and the ECB’s ultimatum, I could not resist continuing the discussion on Iran, […]

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For Russia, it’s a Permanent Naval Port in Cyprus, Stupid!
March 22, 2013 6 min. read

  The eurozone crisis is back on the international agenda with a very serious crisis unfolding in Cyprus right now. Some Wall Street investors might argue just in time to pull the rising U.S. stock market indices — the Dow Jones hit an all-time high recently — down for a better entry point in order […]

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What their reaction to the Cyprus bank tax says about Russia’s government – and the opposition
March 19, 2013 3 min. read

They said it couldn’t be done. But at last, the Kremlin and some of its fiercest liberal critics have found themselves on the same team. The fact that the issue in question is their opposition to the proposed Cypriot bank levies says as much about the regime as the opposition. Try to guess who said […]

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Cyprus gets a haircut on time for Spring
March 18, 2013 5 min. read

The press and the European public opinions are not impressed by the latest agreement made behind closed doors between the recently elected president of Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades, and the EU in order to assure a €10 billion bailout for Cyprus. According to the agreement on the bailout, all Cypriots will have to chip in. As […]

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S&P Downgrades France and 8 Other Eurozone Sovereigns
January 17, 2012 6 min. read

Standard and Poor’s rating agency has lowered the credit ratings of 9 eurozone members, including formerly AAA-rated France and Austria. The move is significant, affecting as it does the future of the eurozone’s bail-out fund, the French presidential election, the roll-over of existing European sovereign debt, and more. However, the downgrade is not really a […]

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