The following Wall Street Journal article [3] deserves to be read in its entirety...
Authored by Vincent Cignarella, originally posted at WSJ Market Beat,
Is The Euro a Currency or a Prison?
Wearing the disguise of austerity, the euro has emerged as the gatekeeper of what is fast becoming a debtors’ prison.
The Troika of the ECB, IMF and European Commission acting in concert have become more like another Troika–of judge, jury and executioner–for any nation within the euro zone that dares not follow the letter of budgetary imposition.
The latest country bound by these handcuffs: Cyprus.
Like Lords of old, they gallop into town and demand of the serfs a levy on their lands, in this case deposits so they may remain within the realm and suffer the protection of the single currency regardless of the cost in pain and human suffering.
Monetary union, the vehicle to bring about peace and prosperity, has become the lash that tears at the fabric of the poorest of nations. In the case of Cyprus, it could easily push that nation into the arms of Russia and abandonment of the euro - the exact opposite result of what the single currency was designed to do.