Our View: Cagey on windfall tax but bank chief demands social awareness

A windfall tax on the banks’ big profits would harm the economy, Central Bank governor Christodoulos Patsalides said last week, in his first news conference since taking the job. He explained that such a move would undermine the fiscal stability that is essential for attracting foreign investors to Cyprus.

He had made a good point, which did not occur to politicians, with their tendency for short-term thinking. They believed that demanding a windfall tax on bank profits would win public...