As the gruelling negotiations went into the small hours of Saturday, a stark choice emerged for the Cypriot delegation: agree a deal which included raising up to €7bn immediately from investors large and small, or the ECB would cut its support to one of Cyprus' troubled banks, saddling the government with unmanageable debts and bringing the whole financial system crashing down.
The figure of 40 percent was commonly cited by people involved in the assessment, but that number could go higher as government number crunchers try to predict the impact of Cyprus's troubles on the value of the bank's assets.
In 1974, Mr. Kissinger sent him as special envoy to Cyprus, another trouble spot, after the American ambassador to Cyprus, Rodger P. Davies, was shot to death during an anti-American demonstration in Nicosia.
Cyprus got into trouble after its banks suffered huge losses in the restructuring of Greece's debt.
The cost of credit-default swaps on European banks has been rising since Cyprus got into trouble, suggesting the market thinks bank defaults have grown more likely.
"The big mistake was not forcing negotiations in 2012 when it was obvious Cyprus was in trouble," said Nicolas Véron, a senior fellow at Bruegel, a research organization in Brussels.
The rush by rival havens could pose economic troubles as Cyprus struggles to keep afloat a financial industry that employs tens of thousands of people.
I remember picking up the phone on my 'desk' and hearing Don talking down the line about photographing the troubles in Cyprus.
STAND on the hot, dark sand of Governor's Beach and you can take in simultaneously the troubles of Cyprus, its dream of future prosperity and its political uncertainty.
The war may be over The archetypal oligarch North is north ReprintsVictimhood is hardly new in Cyprus: the island's troubles are routinely blamed on outsiders like Turkey, Greece, Britain or (now) Russia.
