We live in bewildering times. The financial crisis currently engulfing the small Mediterranean state of Cyprus may comes as a surprise to no one but the same cannot be said about the proposed remedy.
As a condition of a 10 billion euro European Union and International Monetary Fund-backed bailout for their banks, a one-off tax is being levied on ordinary citizens who have managed to put a few euros aside.
For those with savings of 1,000 euros, the levy will cost 67.5 euros.
However, those with 100,000 euros or more in the bank will see their accounts slashed by thousands.
The savings haircut has been described as a form of electronic mugging.
It has led to a steely stand-off between Germany’s Chancellor Merkel who is being portrayed as the villain of the piece for her stance and Russian president Vladimir Putin, who has come out against the levy.
The fact that hundreds of millions of dollars of Russian oil cash is directed through Cyprus’s banking system may have something to do with his viewpoint.
However, politics aside, the real concern is the precedent which this robbing Peter to pay Paul style of economics sets.
Is it really acceptable in the 21st Century for a supposedly progressive economic partnership amongst Westernised nations which the Eurozone purports to be to be penalising hard-working citizens by taking away the little they have salted away for a rainy day?
Does it give other governments carte blanche to pick the pockets of their people when times get tough(er)? With such an unprecedented situation, it is no wonder there is real anger spilling out on to the streets of Nicosia.
And that feeling of unease is spreading among other countries where the economy is on the brink and investors are worried about their own savings.
If the powers that be trigger a mass run on the banks by shattering saver confidence with ill thought-out tax grabs, the cash they are raking in will quickly start to look like sweetie money.
That is a lesson that, post-financial crisis, should have been learned by now.
This really is dangerous ground on which we are treading and the politicians who have sanctioned the Cypriot bailout deal seriously need to think again for the good of the continent as a whole.
l The horse trading ahead of today’s budget has been gathering momentum.
In the run-up to George Osborne’s annual economic tightrope act, the major business bodies have been lining up to give their tuppence-worth of advice to the Treasury.
The truth is, the Chancellor has little real leeway for manoeuvre as he continues to drive down the national debt and his Budget statement is unlikely to live up to all the heady expectations.
There will be new measures to boost house building and a tax cut or two but in the flurry of pre-budget speculation, there has been little sign of the economic game changer so many crave, so there will inevitably be those left disappointed.
It must be tough living at Number 11 sometimes.