How not to run a currency....... Justin A. Urquhart Stewart's latest

Justin is one of the most recognisable and trusted market commentators on television, radio, and in the press.

Originally trained as a lawyer, he has observed the retail market industry for 20 years whilst at Barclay's Stockbrokers and developed a unique understanding of the market’s roles and benefits for the private investor.

Each week we will bring you Justin's latest thoughts and commentary.

For a taster of this week's article please continue to read...

If the chumps in charge of the Eurozone bail outs owned a brewery, they would all be stone cold sober and quite incapable of ever managing any form of festivity.

How you could turn the finances of one of the smallest Eurozone economies into such a fiasco seems almost beyond comprehension. Even with a bailout being agreed, for most Cypriots there will not be an air of any thanks or appreciation but rather one of let-down and betrayal. Yes, something had to be done and yes, they had to pay a price, but the lack of forward thinking about consequences seems quite astonishing.

The Cypriot bloated banking bubble had to be burst, and the nauseous whiff of laundered finances needed to be cleansed. However, surely this could have been done in a more elegant manner than leaving a near-bust economy, an angry population, and an egregious bear with a fidgety paw on the gas pipeline to Europe.

Of course the ‘pièce de résistance’ was the statement by the Dutch finance minister, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who suggested that the Cypriot bailout could be a template for other such bailouts in the Eurozone. This of course sent a message to all bank account holders that in times of maximum fear, they could be open to a raid on their accounts without warning. What an excellent way of encouraging (and even ensuring) future bank runs and chaos. Whilst this has now been withdrawn, the damage may have already been done to depositors’ confidence, and the next few days will show whether there has been any contagion resulting from such stupid comments as customers withdraw their money in other peripheral nations.

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