Bloomberg View: The Perils of Capital Controls
Life under permanent, temporary capital controls
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Picture not being able to cash a check, transfer money electronically, or withdraw more than $385 a day from your bank. Or imagine being searched by airport gendarmes making sure you aren’t taking more than $3,800 of your own money out of the country.
These are the indignities Cypriots must endure after the country’s $13 billion bank rescue. For the first time in the history of the single currency, a euro country is imposing capital controls, even for transfers within the union. It’s as if California barred residents from moving their savings to banks in Oregon.