It has been dry-mouthed terror, and, one suspects, a familiar thought: what can the state and central banks do to help?The impulse to both punish and save finance reflects society's conflicted aims.
The mood was one of quiet relief at the signs of economic recovery and not-so-quiet pride at central bankers' role in saving global finance.
It has already combined the separate operating platforms of its two main units - private banking and investment banking - and will increasingly shift information technology jobs to Poland and India as part of its cost saving drive, finance chief David Mathers told journalists.
(Alphaville) The Economist's Big Mac Index with The Economist instead of a Big Mac (Quartz) Savings glut meets the Great Recession (Antonio Fatas) How to save American finance from itself (New Republic).
The reform will save the finance industry billions.
Only last autumn, the Fed had to save world finance by masterminding the rescue of Long-Term Capital Management, a hedge fund, and cutting interest rates three times.
Karen Bryan is founding editor of the popular Europe a la Carte Travel Blog and the Help Me To Save personal finance website.
And the best part of all this is that by sending fewer people to jail, we can use the money saved to finance similar programs, giving hope to those who need it.
And most of the savers who would be hit are not Russians but, rather, ordinary Cypriots who practiced exactly the habits that too many Germans seem to disdainfully regard as un-Greek: they worked, they set money aside, and they saved to finance property purchases or retirement.
