Like Lehman Brothers before it, Cyprus may well come to be seen not so much as the cause of further crisis but as yet another symptom of the 'long emergency' that continues to suffocate the western economies. We would describe this emergency as, fundamentally, an inevitable crisis triggered by an unsustainable explosion of credit. No progress or improvement has been or will be possible in the underlying condition because both the banking sector that collectively lost its mind and the governments that permitted it to are fatally dysfunctional and equally bankrupt, literally and morally. Western banks and western governments are now like Macbeth's

"..two spent swimmers, that do cling together
And choke their art."

The prime minister of Luxembourg, Jean-Claude Juncker, has provided two clear insights into the world of deceit that the modern politician inhabits:

"We all know what to do, we just don't know how to get re-elected after we have done it."

And,

"When it becomes serious, you have to lie."

This is what we now have by way of parliamentary democracy: a self-serving elite who cannot be trusted, operating to a timetable defined by, and limited to, the electoral cycle.

David Fuller's view Fortunately, few of us are required to invest in the government paper of heavily indebted countries. Similarly, we are not under pressure to park our spare cash in suspect banks.

Fullermoney's preferred strategy is to invest in successful Autonomies, preferably with a decent yield, following their periodic setbacks when these look like a return to potential support, rather than serial deterioration relative to their sectors. Eoin reviews the Autonomies on a frequent basis.